Are You Inviting Unwanted Holiday Guests?

The holiday season, often a time for joy and celebration, also brings an increased risk of cyber-attacks for businesses. Cybercriminals take advantage of the surge in online activity, reduced staffing, and a distracted workforce to launch more frequent and sophisticated attacks. During this period, types of cyber-attacks such as ransomware, phishing, malware, denial-of-service (DoS), and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks are particularly prevalent.

Several factors contribute to the heightened risk during the holidays. The surge in online shopping during events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday creates attractive targets for cybercriminals. Staff can be more susceptible to phishing emails involving FedEx, UPS or USPS related schemes. It’s far easier to fall for a delayed package scam when you are expecting holiday gift deliveries! The holidays are when employees, especially your security teams, take time off, leaving businesses with fewer resources to monitor and respond to threats. Additionally, the focus on holiday promotions and year-end tasks can lead to lapses in vigilance, making systems more vulnerable.

Ransomware involves cybercriminals encrypting a victim’s data and demanding a ransom for the decryption key, often starting with phishing emails containing malicious links. Phishing entails fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information by posing as a trustworthy entity. Malware refers to malicious software designed to harm or exploit any programmable device, service, or network. Denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks overwhelm a system’s resources, rendering it unavailable to users. The potentially high volume of holiday transactions can make downtime far more costly and the desire to pay ransom is greater.

Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks involve intercepting and potentially altering communications between two parties without their knowledge. This can lead to business email compromise and criminals posing as members of your company requesting payments or access to financial accounts.

To increase protection and awareness during this risky period, businesses can adopt several measures.

Employee Training: If you already have a regular employee information security training program, consider doing a short refresher focused on phishing and social engineering recognition. If you do not have a regular program in place, consider implementing training based on the roles of your staff that provides the skills and information needed to perform their assigned tasks. Your employees are your first line of defense against cybercriminals.

Managed Detection and Response:  This provides 24/7/365 monitoring of your digital systems and has a Security Operations Center to manage alerts and possible security incidents.

Conduct a Pre-Holiday Audit: This helps to identify and patch vulnerabilities before the holiday season begins. This could include ensuring all endpoint systems have incorporated the most recent software updates, ensuring employees are complete with assigned information security training, ensuring only necessary firewall ports are accessible, and many others.

Password Vigilance: Passwords should never be replicated.  Start by making sure your team is not using the same passwords for personal accounts as they do for business accounts. If you are using the same password for your Amazon account as you are for your DMS applications, you are asking criminals to take your data!

MFA Vigilance: Make sure your team uses multi-factor authentication in all business and personal applications.

Develop a Holiday Security Strategy: Create or review an incident response plan and conduct a quick tabletop exercise to refresh everyone’s understanding of what to do in case of an emergency.

Physical Security: Make sure data and sensitive information are properly secured, safes and cabinets locked, and security systems armed.

As we move through the holidays and look ahead to the new year, it’s also a good time to refresh your passwords, review your information security policies and plan events that will enhance your organizational information security program throughout the new year. By taking these proactive steps, businesses can better protect themselves from cyber threats during the holiday season, ensuring their data and systems remain safe.