Cyberattacks During the Winter Holidays: When Hackers Don’t Take a Break

Today, we’re going to discuss a highly relevant topic that affects both customers and businesses. Cyberattacks during the winter holidays, some might say it’s the season of joy. But we would also like to mention that Christmas and New Year are just around the corner, which means a large portion of the population will be online, connecting with friends and family or, of course, shopping. You might be busy, or you might want to avoid it.

It’s much easier to avoid standing in line with so many people. Buy groceries and other items online, but be wary of cybercriminals who are trying to lure you into clicking on malicious links and giving away your personal information.

So what kind of information are these hackers looking for? 

Obviously, they are trying to track your billing and credit card information, as well as personal details such as addresses and names.

They are also looking for vulnerable websites that have very weak security measures. The best thing to do is to always shop from reputable retail websites and always use an updated browser, such as Google Chrome or Firefox. Furthermore, you need to be very careful. When it comes to emails you receive at this time of year, you are actually always sent tons of fake emails to get you to access fake websites or click on malicious links that will later infect your computer.

Both customers and businesses are at risk when it comes to cyberattacks. The impact can be devastating. We’re talking about customer data exposure, millions of dollars in ransom, disruption of operations, and so on. As I already mentioned, the winter holidays are fast approaching. People are excited to go home and celebrate with their families and take a break from work. But the FBI’s CSA reminds critical infrastructure organisations that cybercriminals will be on duty. 

Why Holidays Are So Appealing to Hackers?

As we all know, they love to work during the holidays. You might be wondering why holidays are so appealing to cybercriminals. Well, the answer isn’t complicated at all. Most businesses are closed during this time, leaving networks unsupervised and data exposed, which creates an ideal environment for malicious actors. And let’s be serious. 

Hackers already know that organisations are likely to be understaffed. Employees won’t have their eye on the ball. History has shown us that they like to attack critical organisations during weekends and holidays. 

Some of the biggest attacks of 2021 occurred on some of the most significant holidays of the year. The Colonial Pipeline attack happened on Mother’s Day, the JBS attack on Memorial Day, and the Kaseya incident on July 4th. Now let’s look at a study conducted by a cybersecurity company in the US, which showed that 70% of respondents had consumed alcohol at least once while dealing with a cyberattack that occurred during a holiday. The same survey revealed that 9 out of 10 security professionals had been affected by a cyberattack during a major holiday.

Common Holiday Cyberattack Techniques

During the weekend, and now they fear that they may be attacked again before the winter holidays. Some common techniques used by hackers at this time include security breaches, ransomware attacks, spoof websites, phishing scams, unencrypted financial transactions, and social engineering. 

What Businesses Should Do?

Typically, the primary targets are not large department stores but smaller boutique companies. However, they too should be vigilant because they have a large volume of transactions, so they can also become targets of cybercriminals at this time of year.

That’s why all business managers are advised to raise awareness among their employees about such attacks, which increase during the holidays. So what can organisations do to stay safe? Well, a very good place to start would be to identify those IT security personnel who will be available to respond immediately during weekends and holidays in the event of an incident or ransomware attack. Another important measure would be to implement multi-factor authentication for remote access and administrative accounts. In addition, companies should also mandate strong passwords and ensure that they are not used across multiple accounts. 

And one of the last but most important steps is, yes, you guessed it right, cybersecurity training. Remind your employees not to click on malicious links and conduct exercises to raise awareness at all times.

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