CISA launches ‘Securing the Next 250’ cybersecurity awareness campaign

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has launched its 2026 Cybersecurity Awareness Month campaign under the theme ‘Securing the Next 250’, tying the effort to the nation’s 250th anniversary and calling on organisations and communities to strengthen their digital defences.

For critical infrastructure owners and operators, CISA is promoting the ‘3Rs of Cybersecurity’: reduce attack surfaces, replace end-of-support devices, and recover quickly to sustain operations. The agency also recommends logging, backing up and encrypting data, reporting incidents to CISA, and maintaining and exercising incident response plans at least once a year.

The campaign sets out four core steps for individuals: avoiding and reporting phishing, using strong passwords, enabling multifactor authentication and password managers, and keeping software updated. CISA acting director Nick Andersen said every organisation that touches critical infrastructure is vital to ensuring uninterrupted services to America’s communities.

Commenting on the campaign, Centrii co-founder and CEO Rafael Narezzi said cyber risk in critical infrastructure is operational risk, and that resilience requires continuous asset visibility, controlled access and tested response plans. Acalvio CEO Ram Varadarajan and ColorTokens chief evangelist Agnidipta Sarkar both highlighted the speed at which AI is now helping attackers move through networks.