In October, 78 institutions in Brazil and Latin America took part in the Security Month and carried out local actions focused on spreading the culture of security to the general public. Coordinated by RNP, in partnership with the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (RedCLARA) and the Organization of American States (OAS), the set of celebrations has reached its third edition.

This year, the choice of the month of October follows the date promoted by the agencies from North America and Europe, mainly by the European Union, for the Information and Networks Security (Enisa), which promotes 242 activities in 32 European countries. On October 2nd, RNP was invited to participate in the official launch of the Security Month in Washington, in the United States (NCSAM - National Cyber Security Awareness Month), promoted by the Homeland Security Department (DHS).

Among the participating institutions from Latin America are the National Institute for Research and Training in Telecommunications (Inictel), from the National Engineering University (UNI), from Lima, in Peru; and the Marco Fidel Suárez Military School of Aviation (Emavitic), from Valle del Cauca, in Colombia.

The Military School chose to hold a full-day international congress, in the lines of what is done in Disi, for academics, companies and representatives of the Colombian government. The event aim was an inter-institutional work, as "a response to the challenge of preserving cyberspace and critical infrastructure of the country, given the transnational nature of cyber security”. 

In Brazil, institutions that have partaken for the first time in the past year could expand their actions in 2015. It is the case of the Municipal Secretary of Education of Caxias do Sul, which organized 18 sessions in seven public schools about the dangers of using social networks and the Internet, targeted at teachers, parents and students. “In addition to security in hardware and software, it is necessary to improve security in people, because they are the weakest links”, Alexandre Corso, technician from the Secretary of Education and a lecturer at the event, stated.

According to Corso, the awareness campaigns in Caxias do Sul gained strength with the approval of law 7,925, from March 2015, which establishes the Child Exploitation Awareness Week and Combating of Internet Crimes in municipal schools, to be carried during the first week of August every year.

Other institutions are already veterans in the Security Month, such as the Senac Pelotas Technology College (RS), participating for the third time. During the institution’s academic week, two minicourses were ministered, focusing in networks and security. “By the nature of the institution, of technical and higher education levels, this concern is with the awareness and the education of our students about information security. The confidentiality of data in academic and administrative systems is perhaps the biggest reason”, Senac Pelotas’ IT technician, Eduardo Monks, stated.

Debutant Higher Education Center of Foz do Iguaçu (PR) chose to conduct a safety course networks for academic computing. It also organized a meeting on the subject in a local company and sent emails to all teachers and scholars offering tips on security and privacy in social networks. "We need to raise awareness among academics in general about the importance of some simple measures. For those in computing, you need to show that we have protection mechanisms, "said Professor Alessandra Hoffman, who organized the internal campaign.

Photo: Military Aviation School Marco Fidel Suarez (Emavitic), in October 26th.