SMU Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2026

Win Big with Cybersecurity!

A Month-Long Cybersecurity Game Show

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and this year, you're the contestant! 🏆

Step into the spotlight for a month of challenges, games, prizes, and practical ways to strengthen your cybersecurity skills. Each week, we’ll tackle a different part of staying secure—from recognizing today’s cyber threats and strengthening your accounts to protecting important information and knowing what to do when something goes wrong.

Along the way, you can earn Prize Points by completing weekly challenges, playing the Cyber Word Challenge, and participating in special events. The more Prize Points you earn, the more chances you’ll have to win!

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an annual international campaign held every October to promote cybersecurity best practices and online safety. It’s a collaboration between government and industry, including CISA and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA), aimed at empowering everyone to make safer choices online.

At SMU, we’re joining the campaign by making cybersecurity practical, interactive, and a little competitive. Whether you participate in one challenge or play all month long, every action helps make you—and the SMU community—more secure.

🏆 Cybersecurity Challenge

Ready to Play?

Throughout October, there are plenty of ways to play—and plenty of ways to earn Prize Points.

Every Prize Point counts as an entry in our prize drawings, so the more you participate, the better your chances to win.

Each week brings a new theme:

🎯 Week 1: Know the Threat

Learn how phishing, social engineering, scams, impersonation, and AI are changing the threat landscape—and put your skills to the test during our annual phishing simulation.

🔐 Week 2: Protect Yourself

Rethink passwords as passphrases, learn about SMU’s upcoming password changes, and strengthen your account with MFA, updated authentication methods, and passkeys.

🛡️ Week 3: Protect What Matters

Learn how to protect University data, personal information, devices, research, and other important resources—then join us in person at the Cybersecurity Awareness Fair.

🚨 Week 4: Take Action

Put everything you’ve learned to the test in our virtual Cybersecurity Final Round, where the decisions you make determine what happens next.

🎟️ How to Earn Prize Points

Activity	Prize Points
🧩 Weekly Cyber Word Challenge	5 points each week
🎣 Week 1: Phishing Simulation — Correctly report the phish	15 points
🔐 Week 2: Secure Your Account Challenge	10 points
🔑 Week 2 Bonus: Register a passkey	+5 points
🎪 Week 3: Attend the Cybersecurity Awareness Fair	20 points
🎤 Week 3 Bonus: Play Level Up Your Cyber Game	10 points
🚨 Week 4: Complete the Cybersecurity Final Round	15 points

Play More. Earn More. Win Big.

You have all month to play, with up to 100 Prize Points up for grabs! Earn points throughout October by completing weekly challenges, participating in special events, and putting your cybersecurity skills to the test.

At the end of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, you’ll submit a Prize Points survey to tell us which activities you completed and enter your weekly Cyber Word answers and Final Round passphrase. We’ll tally your points and enter you into the prize drawings.

Just like last year, different prize tiers will be available based on your level of participation—so the more you play, the more you can win!

You don’t have to complete everything to participate. Join one challenge, play every week, or go for the full 100-point score. Every activity is another chance to learn something new, strengthen your cybersecurity skills, and Win Big with Cybersecurity!

🎪 Cybersecurity Awareness Fair

Live from Hughes-Trigg: It’s the Cybersecurity Awareness Fair!

Cybersecurity affects everyone at SMU, and during Protect What Matters Week, we’re bringing the game to Hughes-Trigg for an afternoon of interactive activities, cybersecurity resources, prizes, refreshments, and more.

Explore booths from OIT teams and campus partners covering topics that help protect your accounts, devices, information, privacy, research, and everyday digital life.

And this year, there’s a new way to put your knowledge to the test.

Level Up Your Cyber Game

The National Cybersecurity Alliance will join us for Level Up Your Cyber Game, a live, interactive cybersecurity trivia game show where audience members become contestants.

Test what you know, compete against your fellow Mustangs, and see whether you have what it takes to Win Big with Cybersecurity.

Check in through SMU360 when you arrive to earn 20 Prize Points, and participate in Level Up Your Cyber Game to earn even more.

SMU staff can also earn Wellpower points by participating.

Ready to Win Big?

Join us at the Hughes-Trigg Student Center on October 22, 2026, from 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. The Cybersecurity Awareness Fair is open to all SMU students, faculty, and staff!

To register and find out more, click the button below.