Securing Your Business During the Holidays

During the holiday season, many businesses may shut down or reduce hours in order to take advantage of the winter holidays while many employees choose to work remote or vacation. The holiday season may feel like a well-deserved break for many, but for cyber criminals, it's the busiest time of the year. During the holidays, cyber-crime surges by roughly 30%. This year, make sure your business is prepared for whatever cyber-criminals have in store. 

Why the Spike?

There are several reasons as to why cyber criminals are bolder during the holiday season. First, many IT employees, like other employees, take time off to celebrate the holidays or go on vacation. This leaves less staff to monitor and respond to potential security events. In the case of a zero-day exploit or new patch, applications and devices may not be updated in a timely manner. Bad actors see this as a prime opportunity to strike when their victims are unaware.

Another reason that cyber-crime may spike during the holidays is due to remote workers. While users may not be taking time off, they may be working from home, or in other remote locations. This could mean your employees are accessing company resources in unprotected environments using unsecured devices. An employee's home network or a local coffee shop are common targets for cyber-criminals.

Another trademark of the holiday season is online shopping. In the weeks leading up to Black Friday and the months following, billions of dollars are spent online across thousands of websites. Unfortunately, not all of these websites are legitimate. Millions of false websites and spoofed domains are setup with the intention of harvesting login credentials, installing malware, or stealing financial information. If your users aren't implementing strong passwords or are accessing malicious websites on the company network, they may be opening up your organization to risk. 

What Can Your Business Do?

Here are several steps your organization can implement to ensure your business is secure during the holiday season and year-round:

• Every organization should implement a strong holiday cybersecurity strategy that includes 24/7 monitoring and incident response plans. Your organization should also enlist the aid of a Security Operations Center (SOC). CorpInfoTech offers fully/co managed services to ensure your business is protected year-round.

• Prior to the holidays, confirm that your applications, software, and devices are up to date and patched. Protect your business assets by patching any vulnerabilities that exist on the network. Through V360, CorpInfoTech offers vulnerability management that continuously addresses vulnerabilities and gaps that may propagate on the network. 
• Maintaining industry compliance is a year-round mandate. Don't become lax on your compliance during the holiday season but commit to strengthening your security in the new year. CorpInfoTech offers compliance services to help organizations become and maintain compliance regardless of the industry.
• Continue to educate users on the dangers of social engineering and how the holiday season may exacerbate risk. CorpInfoTech helps businesses educate their employees through security awareness training. Take Precautions to: Avoid following suspicious links to unknown websites, steer clear of spoofed websites, avoid accessing company resources while connected to public Wi-Fi networks, implement strong password practices, and use VPN's and anti-virus software when browsing the internet. 
  
• The firewall is the centerpiece of your business' security. Keep the bad guys out by managing your firewall this holiday season. CorpInfoTech offers managed firewall services to implement and maintain a secure firewall that protects your organization from unwanted intruders.  
• Start the new year off right with a comprehensive view of your organization's vulnerabilities. Continuous security assessments should be a crucial part of every organization's security plan. CorpInfoTech offers comprehensive security assessments that address your industry's unique needs.

Don't let hackers ruin your holiday season! Contact CorpInfoTech today to learn how we can defend your business year-round!

CorpInfoTech (Corporate Information Technologies) provides small to mid-market organizations with expert I.T. services, including security assessment, cybersecurity penetration tests, managed services (MSP),  firewall management, and vulnerability management. CorpInfoTech can help organizations, quantify, create, refine, and mitigate the risks presented by business threatening disasters in whatever form they may be disguised.