Colorado Cybersecurity

Colorado Governor Polis has made the following suggestions for making sure your home or business stays secure during the geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

Everyone should lower their threshold of reporting suspicious online activity. Intrusions, attempted intrusion, phishing efforts, suspicious links, etc. should all be reported to the Colorado Information Analysis Center (CIAC) at 877-509-2422 (available 24 hours/day) or online at https://ciacco.org/ then submit a Community Member Suspicious Activity Report.

If you believe that you are experiencing an active cyber intrusion, data breach, or ransomware event please also report to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at https://www.ic3.gov/Home/FileComplaint and CISA Central 888-282-0970 or https://www.us-cert.gov/report.

“Now is the time to update the security of your online systems and accounts. Change passwords to strong passwords and turn on Two-Factor authentication,” urges the Governor. “Now is the time to protect, defend, and report against suspicious online activity for yourselves and those within your circles.”

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the Federal Department of Homeland Security has several important resources for you to take advantage of to keep your systems safe from intrusion that could put Coloradans at risk. These include:

• The Shields Up program provides excellent guidance to organizations on cybersecurity, https://www.cisa.gov/shields-up
• The CISA Insights website gives detailed intelligence on the threats that exist, https://www.cisa.gov/insights
• CISA’s Catalog of their services is also an important resource, https://www.cisa.gov/publication/cisa-services-catalog

Other cybersecurity resources include:

• The Center for Internet Security provides excellent resources, (CISecurity.org)
• The National Cyber Security Alliance provides insights for businesses and individuals, (www.staysafeonline.org)
• The National CyberSecurity Center provides educational and other cybersecurity resources to K-12 and adults, (https://cyber-center.org)
• STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ Campaign website provides homes, schools, workplaces, and businesses with ways to put cybersecurity knowledge into practice, (www.stopthinkconnect.org)