Unwrapping Cyber Threats During the Holidays

As the festive season approaches, businesses are either getting ready for the busiest time of the year or slightly slowing down. Either way, every company must be aware that the holidays bring more than just joy—they also bring cyber threats.

Unfortunately, cybercriminals are not as festive as most of us; they do not take a break during the holidays. In fact, they increase their efforts to steal data, hack and lock servers, and more. Cyberattacks are at an all-time high during the holidays due to increased online activities and data, distracted employees, and jam-packed emails.

Every professional and business must understand the common cyber threats during the holidays. These threats could affect any of us while we think about our Christmas break, and our cyber alertness is somewhat lowered.

Hence, the article will focus on the top cyber threats during the holidays that could turn the festive season into a disastrous one.

Top Cyber Threats During the Holidays

Phishing Emails Get More Convincing

Everyone is doing their best to manage emails and complete tasks while also looking forward to their holidays and the festive season. One of the most common cyber threats during the holidays is phishing attacks. These attacks exploit distracted employees, high workloads, and overloaded emails.

A phishing attack is any email that deceives employees into clicking a malicious link or revealing sensitive data. Over time, these emails have become even more convincing, and attackers have become more innovative.

A common phishing scam during the busy season is the ‘ email that claims to be from your managers or colleagues. The email may ask you to join a call or complete a task connected to a link. The sender names may match, but the email addresses will differ.

Other examples of phishing emails during the holidays include fake charities, Christmas discounts, holiday e-cards or fake delivery scams. Each one of these emails will be highly convincing and contain links that can be very tempting to click while distracted or in a festive mood.

Ransomware Threats Are Unpredictable

The last few weeks of the year should be smooth and profitable. However, cybercriminals enjoy making the holiday season challenging. One-click on a malicious link in a phishing email or accidentally visiting a malicious website can lead to malware.

Ransomware is one of the worst forms of malware. It locks a company’s server and data until a specific amount is paid to the criminal. Cybersecurity reports show that ransomware attacks increase by 30% during the holidays (December to January) compared to the rest of the year.

Common causes of holiday ransomware attacks are phishing scams, fake online shopping websites, Christmas discount links, tempting holiday downloads, social media products and more.

During the festive season, it can be very easy to get attracted by irresistible discounts and products. However, if it seems too good to be true, it frequently is. It just takes one click to give access to a cybercriminal, lock data and seriously interrupt the most profitable season.

Unsecure Wi-Fi

Employees begin their holidays on different days, take more work-from-home days, and some even work from a different country. When working away from the office, employees must depend on external Wi-Fi, which could include public Wi-Fi.

Cyber threats during the holiday season include cyber-attacks due to unsecure Wi-Fi. Any public WI-FI could be unsecure and hacked to steal user data. These attacks are known as man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.

Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks are threats when a cybercriminal has hacked a Wi-Fi and can spy and steal the data being inputted while using the Wi-Fi. If you are working from a café during the holidays or even checking your work emails on public Wi-Fi, there is a chance a hacker has gained access to your data.

These attacks rise during the holidays as criminals know more employees will work from different locations. You may never know that a cybercriminal is hacking your Wi-Fi and stealing any data you input until it’s too late.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

High website traffic and requests during the holidays usually seems like great news. Many e-commerce sites see a spike in traffic at this time of year. However, the high level of traffic could also be a form of cyber threat during the holidays. 

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) occurs when an attacker floods a server with illegitimate traffic to slow down the website, disrupt user access, and possibly force the site to shut down. DDoS attacks are often used as a distraction while other cyber fraud and cyber hacks are attempted.

The attack increases during the holidays due to the natural increase in traffic, which hides the attack, the rise in customer data, and the lack of a workforce constantly monitoring the website. These attacks could occur on any website but are more common on websites that deal with customers and sell products/services online.

Increase In AI Attacks

Any cyber-attack mentioned is already harmful in its simple form and a concern. However, in recent years, artificial intelligence has made almost every cyber threat even more dangerous.

AI cyber threats during the holidays should scare almost every business – no company is safe. Cybercriminals have made cyber threats more convincing, personal and complicated to identify with AI.

Examples of AI cyber threats include phishing attacks, deepfakes, AI malware, and more. For example, a deepfake attack can impersonate your manager through email, voice, and video and demand that you transfer company funds to a specific account, which is a malicious account. The deepfake content AI creates is almost identical to that of the impersonated person, which is why it has led to multiple disasters.

When AI is used, the software understands human behaviour and strategically attacks based on its learning. These AI attacks are currently very active and can ruin the holiday season with a huge amount of financial and data loss.

Why Cyber Insurance Is Vital to Battle Cyber Threats During the Holidays

Cybercriminals are the Grinch of the digital business world. Companies must invest in proper cybersecurity softwares and training to detect and prevent cyberattacks before it is too late.

Being alert and aware of cyber threats during the holidays can help prevent most simple attacks. It can prevent clicking on that malicious link and sending phishing emails straight to the trash.

Additionally, companies need cyber insurance alongside cybersecurity strategies when innovative attacks penetrate their defences.

Fortunately, the insurance will cover the advice of cyber experts, threat removal, data recovery, third-party communication, ransom costs, and financial loss. However, it will only cover companies with updated and current cybersecurity measures. It is a vital policy to recover from the worst cyber-attacks with reduced damage. 

Companies must be aware and prepared for cyber threats during the holidays to keep the festive season exciting and joyful.

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To Learn More about cyber insurance and get the best coverage against cyber threats during the holidays, contact Red Asia Insurance.