October Cybersecurity Awareness 2027
When Cybersecurity Awareness Month Meets Open Enrollment
October gives brokers a rare alignment: national attention on cyber threats, and the one week each year employees actually read their benefits materials.
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. It is also when most mid-market employers open enrollment for the following plan year. Those two calendars line up in a way that does not happen at any other time of year. Employees are already thinking about digital risk. They are also about to make benefit elections. That is a rare window for the identity theft protection plan conversation.
The Data Employees Are About to See
The FTC reported that Americans lost $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024. That is a 25 percent jump from the year before.1 The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 193,407 phishing and spoofing complaints in the same year. Phishing was the top cybercrime category.2 Numbers like these will land in headlines all month. The question for brokers is simple. Do enrollment materials mention identity theft protection services at all? Or are cyber-threats treated as somebody else's problem?
The Broker's October Talking Points
Three moves work well this time of year.
- Show the data. Federal figures are more persuasive than product brochures. One line in an HR email quoting the FTC $12.5 billion loss figure earns more clicks than a full page of feature copy.
- Tie it to work. Employees dealing with identity theft miss workdays. They spend paid hours on hold with banks and credit bureaus. Frame identity theft protection services as productivity protection.
- Push clients to promote voluntary ID theft protection plans next to their medical elections. Do not let it get buried three tabs deep in the benefits portal.
What Peace of Mind Actually Looks Like
Employees who elect identity theft protection plans at open enrollment and add their Personally Identifiable Information (PII) do not think about it again. Not until the day it matters. That day starts with a suspicious credit inquiry. Or a new account they did not open. Or a bank text about a wire they did not send. They call one number. An identity theft specialist picks up. No one is left to figure it out on their own.
Product Spotlight: IDShield® Monitoring and Restoration
IDShield® covers the full arc of an identity theft event. Plan participants receive identity theft monitoring across financial accounts and social platforms, real-time credit monitoring alerts, device* and scam protection.* They get unlimited consultation on security questions. When something goes wrong, call IDShield and a licensed private investigator will open a case and work it end-to-end. Coverage extends to the employee, their spouse or domestic partner, and eligible dependents. (Restoration Services are available for parents, adult children, and the 3-bureau plan even provides restoration services for Grandparents.*) October is when employees start asking about this. IDShield is the answer that fits in a benefits package.
Talk to Your LegalShield® Business Solutions Representative
Reach out to your LegalShield Business Solutions representative or email [email protected] to get updated proposals, enrollment materials, and talking points for October.
*IDShield National Plan only