Be Ready for Cyberattacks During the Winter Holiday Season

This is the season of celebrations. For most of us, it is a long-awaited chance to take our foot off the gas, unwind with friends and family, and eat our favourite meals. The holiday season also witnesses a drastic spike in online spending. Adobe Digital Economy predicts an 11% year-on-year increase in online spending globally that will hit $910 billion this season. The same report also indicates that in the U.S. alone, online holiday sales in November and December are expected to reach a record $207 billion. However, holiday time isn’t always a relaxing time for IT professionals as cybercrime rates skyrocket and threat actors come calling.

Cybercriminals want to give companies an unwelcome gift

With a significant increase in online spending, cybercriminals see the holiday season as the perfect opportunity to launch attacks, and ransomware is their favourite gift to give any organization. A new holiday ransomware study from Cybereason, “Organizations at Risk 2022: Ransomware Attackers Don’t Take Holidays”, dives into ransomware impacts on companies and employees throughout the winter holidays with data included for major industries and geographic regions. The FBI also issued a warning in November, advising all organizations, executives and workers to proactively protect themselves from ransomware and fraud during the holiday season.

Source: AARP

Many factors lead to an increase in cyberattacks during holidays

As both individuals and companies have their guards down during the holiday season, cyberattacks surge to a great extent. The IT skill shortage also hampers organizations’ ability to thwart cyberattacks. The problem worsens around the winter holidays, giving threat actors the perfect opportunity to execute their devious plans. According to the Cybereason survey, most companies run at less than half staff (44%) during holidays and weekends. Many companies drop to less than 10% staffing during those periods, including companies in four major verticals: Finance (36%), Healthcare (26%), Manufacturing (17%) and IT and Telecom (15%).

Another prominent reason for the cyberattack surge is holiday shopping. Businesses go all out with the most attractive deals and offer to beat their competition and improve their brand value. Often, consumers are so engrossed in finding the best deal that they fall into cybercriminals’ traps. Also, as the online presence increases due to shopping and using mobile devices to stay connected, cybercriminals have more opportunities to launch attacks during the holiday season. Plus, employees add unanticipated risks for businesses as they shop from work devices.

Take smart precautions to mitigate holiday & weekend risk

Making sure that a company has an incident response plan ready is essential for ensuring that a company can quickly respond to threats and mitigate damage from a successful attack. These resources can help IT professionals learn more about the holiday season cybersecurity risk and digital fraud threats that businesses face.

• The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have tips available to help reduce the risk of trouble related to holiday shopping.
• The Better Business Bureau has partnered with Amazon to release a new online scam reporting and prevention tool, the BBB Scam Tracker.

One major mitigation that companies can enact is security awareness training including phishing simulations. Many major holiday threats like ransomware are often email-based. Organizations should step up training for their employees in advance of dangerous periods to prevent them from falling into cybercriminals’ traps.

Source: ID Agent