The holiday season is an opportunity to celebrate and relax. Instead, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) should be prepared for an unexpected influx of cyberattacks and attempts to hack into social networks.
Cyber-attacks become more serious The Cyber Threats Increase During the Holidays
Cybercriminals regard the holiday period as a chance to attack. If you’re juggling the sudden and massive growth in your business, it’s difficult to devote as much time and energy to security. In addition, you may have fewer workers working as employees are off. This makes it easier for hackers to sneak in and go unnoticed, which gives hackers more time to cause destruction.
Although it did not provide specific figures, it did state that the frequency of cyberattacks increases prior to holidays and during normal off-hours. It also stated that attacks typically cause more severe damage than the norm.
CISA’s findings align with that of Federal Bureau Of Investigation’s Crime Complaint Center’s report about cyberattacks and trends. The CISA received reports of cybercrime in 2022. The total was $10.3 billion of losses which is a $3.4 billion increase over 2021. Along with being more prevalent during the holiday season, Cyber-attacks are getting more dangerous each year.
Benefits of Increasing Your Cybersecurity Posture
Most likely, you conduct your company’s business during the Christmas season. By enhancing your security measures, you do not experience unplanned, sudden downtime that can cost your business sales. Furthermore, it protects your brand’s reputation and loyalty because customers see you as a secure, comfortable place to conduct business.
Be proactive in reducing the risk of cyberattack threats, malware, and threats to ensure the safety of your employees, customers, and your profits during a busy period of the year.
Tips for Increasing Cybersecurity during the Christmas Season
The increased frequency of attacks in the season of Christmas can appear daunting, but it’s actually achievable with the proper strategies. When you’re prepared, you’ll be able to avoid most cyber-attacks.
1. The transition to Digital Systems
If you’re one of the many SMEs, you use physical filing systems for storing the paperwork and documents. While it’s not a new procedure, it’s a serious security risk anybody who has the ability to get into the room may alter, steal, or throw away documents. Furthermore, you are at risk of leaks when you transfer or scan documents on paper.
Moving to paperless storage could dramatically enhance your security on the internet. Digital systems can enhance document security by offering secure storage and access rights. So, only those you have granted permission to modify, transmit, or save documents.
2. Implement Measures to Authenticate
Authentication measures fall under three categories – things you are aware of, or have — that include passwords multi-factor authentication, and biometrics. If you restrict who can access sensitive information and systems, you safeguard against human error as well as reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
The majority of security experts agree that authentication methods are among the most effective security tools an SME should utilize. Some experts suggest that multi-factor authentication could block as much as 50% of fraudulent access attempts. You should seriously consider implementing these devices because unauthorized logins and breaches are more common during the festive season.
3. Prioritize Redundancy
While most SMEs try to reduce redundant systems, it’s helpful in the event of cybersecurity-related incidents. When cyberattacks hit, critical systems are shut down for a period of days or even weeks. In actuality, the downtime for distributed denial-of-service attacks grew to more than 50 hours by 2022 from only 30 minutes as of 2021. In this situation backups are crucial.
This is unless you have backup systems and backup data. So, you won’t be required to pay a ransom or be patiently waiting for the cyberattack to stop. Redundancy allows you to remain in operation even in the worst-case scenario.
4. Make Use of Automation Tools
The majority of cyberattacks during the holiday season occur due to cybercriminals having a greater chance of exploiting the vulnerabilities on your network in the event that you are not employing enough personnel or are overloaded. Naturally, implementing automation is among the most effective ways to prevent cyberattacks.
If you’ve got tools such as robotic process automation or artificial intelligence that to do the job for you during the off hours or during busy times it is possible to keep your security in check. If you have set up automated alerts for detection of threats or suspicious behavior, you will be able to increase the speed of your incident response. Also, cybercriminals stand a less chance of gaining access to your system’s sensitive information.
5. Examine Vendor Security
There are likely to be many things to handle in the season of Christmas however, you must consider having a conversation with your suppliers. They tend to overlook weaknesses which can put your business at risk of cyber attack. In reality, close to 50% of businesses suffered cybersecurity-related incidents due to the third-party servicer by 2023. Making contact with them regarding their security practices can help you.
Examine your contracts with suppliers to understand their security responsibilities, and also review them to make sure they’re in compliance. While they may be hesitant, you must insist on accountability. In the end, their weaknesses are yours to blame.
The importance of a proactive effort this Christmas Season
While you may be tempted to delay making changes to your security until after the excitement of the holiday season is over an active approach will yield better results. Instead of putting off cyberattacks and risking costly charges as well as reputational damage, and even loss of sales, it is imperative to improve your security as quickly as you can.
