As far as singers go, Andy Williams knew nothing about cybersecurity. For our sector, December is about as far away from “the most wonderful time of the year” as you can possibly get. Hackers love holidays: they disrupt security teams’ schedules, increase the volume of traffic and pressure on a system and ultimately expose vulnerabilities. Just last month, CISA shared a reminder noting that “malicious cyber actors [launch] serious and impactful ransomware attacks during holidays and weekends,” citing Independence Day and Mother’s Day as recent examples.
The holiday season will provide hackers with more time and opportunities to scam customers, tarnish business’ brands, steal Internet Protocol (IP), phish employees, expose businesses to GDPR violations and spread ransomware. Moreover, the fact that many new and lapsed users will begin using new services and devices — and likely request password resets in the process — will put additional strain on security teams.