Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2026 focuses on infrastructure and training efficacy

Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2026 features dual themes: CISA’s “Securing the Next 250,” focusing on infrastructure resilience, and the National Cybersecurity Alliance’s “Don’t Make It Easy for Them,” targeting individual habits.

For critical infrastructure operators, emphasis is placed on the “3 R’s of cybersecurity”: reducing the attack surface through network visibility and zero trust, replacing end-of-support devices that lack security patches, and ensuring quick recovery to sustain operations after a breach.

Discussions regarding the efficacy of security awareness training show conflicting data. While KnowBe4 reported a reduction in phishing simulation click rates from 33.1 percent to 4.1 percent after 12 months of continuous training, a University of Chicago study found no meaningful reduction in phishing susceptibility. Additionally, research presented at USENIX suggests that the effects of such training may fade within approximately six months without constant reinforcement.