National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, 2025
This Presidential Proclamation officially designates October 2025 as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, underscoring the Administration's dedication to strengthening national cybersecurity against foreign and criminal cyber threats.
The document references prior actions, including an Executive Order aimed at securing federal software development and adopting encryption, and highlights support for legislation protecting children online. It concludes by urging all citizens, companies, and institutions to participate in cybersecurity education and take personal protective measures like using strong passwords and multi-factor authentication.
Arguments For
Reinforces the Administration's commitment to national defense and sovereignty against increasing cyber threats from criminal organizations and foreign adversaries.
Provides a framework for public awareness and education by encouraging citizens and institutions to observe the month with training and events.
Links the cybersecurity focus to existing policy achievements, such as the Executive Order strengthening federal security practices and promoting secure software development.
Addresses the protection of individuals, specifically referencing the First Lady's advocacy for laws protecting children against online exploitation.
Arguments Against
The proclamation relies heavily on asserting past protective actions (Executive Order, TAKE IT DOWN Act) without detailing specific new measures being enacted through this proclamation itself.
The promise to eliminate "unnecessary regulatory burdens" while simultaneously working on cybersecurity might create ambiguity regarding the balance between innovation and necessary security mandates.
The proclamation re-directs AI cybersecurity efforts towards vulnerability management rather than censorship, which could invite debate over the definition and balance of these two objectives.
The document names a specific future date (October 2025) for the proclamation, which might raise questions if reviewed outside that time frame or without accompanying supporting contemporary policy context.
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
This National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, my Administration renews its commitment to strengthening our Nation’s cybersecurity to improve American lives, defend American sovereignty, and uphold the rights of every American citizen.
This part establishes the document as a proclamation issued by the President of the United States.
It declares the commitment of the Administration to enhance national cybersecurity for the benefit of American citizens, ensuring national defense and safeguarding individual rights.
In recent years, advancements in cybersecurity have presented new threats to our national defense and personal privacy. Criminal organizations and our foes overseas have continued to wage cyber campaigns targeting American civilians and businesses. These attacks have disrupted critical services across our Nation and inflicted billions of dollars in damages.
The text identifies the ongoing risks posed by cybersecurity advancements, noting that criminal groups and foreign adversaries are actively conducting cyber campaigns.
These campaigns specifically target American civilians and businesses, resulting in disruptions to vital national services and causing billions in financial losses.
For this reason, earlier this year, I signed an Executive Order to strengthen our Nation’s cybersecurity by focusing on critical protections against foreign cyber threats and improving secure technology practices. Among other crucial measures, this action orders the Federal Government to advance secure software development, directs the adoption of the latest encryption protocols, and refocuses artificial intelligence cybersecurity efforts towards identifying and managing vulnerabilities rather than censoring the lawful speech of the American people.
The President cites a recently signed Executive Order as a direct response to these threats.
This order mandated improvements in federal technology and protection against foreign cyber threats.
Key components include promoting secure software development, requiring modern encryption standards, and directing artificial intelligence efforts toward finding security weaknesses instead of restricting legitimate public speech.
In this effort, I am especially proud of the First Lady, whose steadfast leadership has helped protect America’s children in the digital world. Earlier this year, she championed the bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act, a landmark law that gives families and young people stronger protections against the spread of non‑consensual intimate images and other forms of online exploitation. Her dedication reminds us that cybersecurity is not only about networks and infrastructure, but also about safeguarding the dignity, privacy, and well-being of every American child.
This paragraph focuses on the First Lady's contributions to digital safety, particularly concerning children.
It commends her role in advancing the bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act, which strengthens protections for families against the sharing of non-consensual intimate images and other online exploitation tactics.
This emphasizes that cybersecurity extends beyond technical infrastructure to include personal dignity and child welfare.
We are also putting the interests of American citizens and American companies first in cyberspace, ensuring that our inheritance of freedom prevails and endures in the digital age. We are fueling American innovation by eliminating unnecessary regulatory burdens and securing greater investments in our technology sector. My Administration will do whatever it takes to make America cyber secure.
The Administration prioritizes the interests of American citizens and businesses in cyberspace to ensure freedom persists in the digital era.
The strategy involves supporting American innovation by removing burdensome regulations and actively seeking increased investments in the technology sector.
The commitment is stated to make the nation cyber secure through any necessary means.
This month, especially, the First Lady and I encourage every American to take steps to safeguard their personal devices, technology, and data — including by using stronger passwords and multifactor authentication, reporting fraudulent emails, backing up critical data, and regularly updating software. We also renew our pledge to unleash the full might of American ingenuity to respond to every threat to our privacy, freedom, and national security — and we vow to never waver in defending the lives, liberty, and safety of the American people.
During this awareness month, the President and First Lady urge all Americans to protect their personal technology and data.
Recommended steps include using strong passwords, employing multi-factor authentication, identifying fraudulent emails, backing up data, and keeping software updated.
The proclamation concludes by reaffirming the pledge to use American ingenuity to counter all threats to privacy and security.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2025 as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. I call upon the people, companies, and institutions of the United States to recognize the importance of cybersecurity and to observe this month through events, training, and education to further our country’s national security and resilience.
Exercising constitutional and legal authority, the President officially declares October 2025 as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
This formal declaration invites all U.S. people, companies, and institutions to acknowledge the importance of cybersecurity and actively observe the month through educational activities, training sessions, and related events to boost national security and resilience.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fiftieth.
DONALD J. TRUMP
This closing section provides the official witness clause, noting the date the proclamation was signed: October 17, 2025, which marks the 250th year of American independence.
It concludes with the signature of Donald J. Trump.