The holiday season is coming as we enter December. As most people are already planning their Christmas and New Year break, cyber threats lurking in the hidden black corners waiting to strike. This article will explore the spike in cyber threats during the holiday season and give the information needed to stay vigilant in anticipation of cyber attacks.
The holiday season is a big chance for hackers to do their malicious activities. During the holiday season, traffic on the internet might increase or become below normal, but the first scenario seems more sensible. Quoted from Darktrace, in 2021, there was a 70 percent increase in cyber attacks during the Christmas season.
What is the condition?
People often do various holiday activities, such as shopping for new clothes, booking tickets for a holiday trip, and many more. Those are examples of the customer’s condition, but what are the examples of the company’s condition? It can be pictured that there will be many employees taking holiday breaks sooner, then less manpower protecting the server, services, and other sectors, which will lead to a more vulnerable spot for hackers to land attacks.
A busy traffic network will also be another soft spot for hackers to land attacks. Under a busy internet network, many people’s data flow together accessing their needed information. If there is less manpower protecting the data during the holiday season, that busy network will be easier for hackers to attack, resulting in data leakage of many people.
Should customers be more vigilant?
Yes, but not only them. Companies should do as much hard work as customers to protect their services from being breached by hackers. There is a great chance of companies losing the trust of their customers if their data were leaked.
Quoted from the data that Emil Kristensen delivered, the holiday season of Q4 sales could make up 26.8% of that year’s sales. That number is not something that a company wants to lose.
The mitigation.
A Central Security Operation Center (CSOC) is the simplest answer to solve the problem. CSOC in ACSI offers protection 24 hours 7 days, or it means ACSI will always protect and oversee your company’s system. But surely, not all companies can get access to CSOC, especially micro-small businesses.
CSOC cannot be accessed by small businesses because the cost is too much. Small businesses can just get access to other cyber security services that do not cost as high as CSOC. In 2020, it was reported that one CSOC analyst cost $110,610.
Other mitigations.
While bringing CSOC more accessible to small businesses, some actions can be taken to mitigate the issues of cyber threats spiking during the holiday season:
- Educating employee
Educate employees frequently about the danger of cyber threats, such as malware, spyware, and so on. There is no harm in reminding employees as it is one of the easiest prevention methods
- Keeping up enough employee
Having a good enough number of employees can prevent catastrophe when the holiday season is approaching. When a large number of employees are taking paid leave, there would not be problems that the company need to face because of the lack of employee working. Having a sufficient number of employees will also help your customers whenever there is a problem. Often enough, the company’s customer service is getting too busy during the holiday season because of the lack of manpower
- Protecting work hardware
Reminding employees to keep changing passwords of their work devices, or a better way to protect work hardware is to ask them to leave their devices in the office. However, it is not an effective solution because this way might prevent employees from working if there is an emergency case.
For customers:
- Beware of links
Remember not all links are safe. Some links are malicious and can steal your data. Only trust links that are given by your trusted source, or have the correct and not suspicious URL
- Do transactions through a trusted source
Only pay for your items through an application that you trust. Do not fall into a scheme that offers a cheaper price that does not make sense. Remember that the holiday season is full of traps because the traffic is getting busier than ever
- Update your software
Upgrade your operation system or software to the latest version to make sure you receive the highest security protection that is available. This might increase your chance of being protected against the new cyber threats.
Read our other works:
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• What is Printer Hacking? Get to Know Printer Hacking and How to Protect Your Company
• Social Engineering Role during the Indonesian 2024 General Election
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