Why You Should Take Cybersecurity Seriously During The Holiday Seasons?
With the holiday season coming in soon, it is critical to engage in cybersecurity hygiene. It is because reports have indicated that cybercrime, including financial phishing, is exceptionally high during the holiday season. To be precise, cybercrimes witnessed an increase of nine per cent during the holiday season compared to the rest of the year. Here is why you should take cybersecurity seriously during the holiday season.
1. Fake Festivity Shopping Deals
The holiday season includes numerous celebrations like Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year. Also, during this time, people engage highly in online shopping. Unfortunately, cybercriminals know the nature of the shoppers and use it as an opportunity to send phishing emails. Such phishing emails often include irresistible deals that make the victim click on a link to land themselves a lucrative offer. However, what follows is not a celebration but a tragedy.
Avoid clicking on any link you receive through emails promising an attractive offer. Instead, check the official website to see whether you can grab an offer there.
2. Remote Working Increases
During the holiday season, it is pretty standard for the employees to either take an off or work from home. Working remotely without proper cyber security can result in many problems, like stolen IP addresses; you can check your IP address on What Is My IP. Working from home or other places using public Wi-Fi can also put sensitive information at risk. It is because most public Wi-Fi does not support a robust security system which increases the risk of a data breach.
To avoid such an attack, one should avoid using public Wi-Fi and have updated antivirus software on the system.
3. Malicious Script On Payment Pages
As discussed above, many people shop online during the holiday season. Therefore, e-commerce activities reach an all-time high during the festivities. It gives rise to sniffing, where the sniffers enter a malicious script in the payment pages of different eCommerce platforms. This script makes it easy to extract credit card information and use it for unauthorized purchases.
You can stay safe from the sniffers by enabling two-factor authentication for all your payments. With two-factor authentication, you can ensure that no one uses your credit card for unauthorized purchases.
4. Trojan Horses In The Form Of Gift Cards
Many companies offer their employees bonuses or gift cards during the holiday season. Therefore, sending gift cards to the potential victim is a much-used strategy by the cybercriminal to unleash the trojan horse. Clicking such gift cards to avail of the reward can create a severe problem for the employee and the company they work for.
Check whether the gift card is genuine or not. A simple check of the sender’s email address can allow you to judge whether it is a real gift card or a fake one.
5. Lack Of IT Professionals
Many employees, including IT professionals, take an off during the holiday season. As a result, only a few IT professionals work in the office. Therefore, in such a scenario, the number of people who can respond to a threat is fewer. As a result, it puts the entire organization in a highly vulnerable situation.
Many cyber criminals take advantage of fewer IT professionals working in the office to attack small and big businesses.
6. Distracted Employees
The workers are often distracted by so much going on during the holiday season. As a result, cybersecurity hygiene is below the usual standard. A distracted worker can engage in human error and fall prey to cybercrime. Reports indicate that 95% of all data breaches across the globe are a result of human error. Therefore, the chances of a successful cyber attack increase considerably because of distracted workers.
The Importance Of Holiday Cybersecurity
It is of utmost importance for the organization and the individual stakeholders to understand the value of cybersecurity during the holiday season. One must improve the security season before the holiday season arrives and keep everything updated. Organizations can further reduce the risk of a cyberattack within the business by training employees about the common cyberattacks that happen during the holiday season. It will help the employees to stay vigilant and reduce vulnerability for everyone. By following these simple precautions, one can stay safe in cyberspace during the holiday season.