With only a few days before Christmas, businesses are on overdrive to end their Christmas sales and call it a season.
However, as businesses celebrate parties and take their breaks, this shift in focus could inadvertently lead to executives and their teams lowering their guards, including cybersecurity vigilance.
This mindset would only embolden online grinches in the form of phishers at this time of year, deploying cleverly crafted scams that could easily slip through the cracks of distracted minds.
In 2022 alone, Americans lost $281 million from cyber scams, over half of those targeted were victims of a successful scam a majority of which took place in November and December.
In order to avoid being scammed, Valor Cybersecurity partner and CEO Greg Tomchick wrote a list of suggestions for Inc.com to help companies navigate the rest of the winter holidays safely and avoid getting coal under the Christmas tree.
Don't Click Dubious Links
Executives and their teams need to approach every email with a heightened sense of caution.
Reinvigorated emphasis on the basics of cybersecurity is much more important as Christmas approaches. Companies can implement measures as simple as scrutinizing email links and attachments, especially from unfamiliar sources.
Secure Transactions
Businesses are also urged to ensure that their transactions, whether significant or simple, are securely processed and read right on their bank statements, as this would be crucial in keeping their businesses safe.
If there is even a slight oddity in the transaction, it is important for companies to call their bank provider immediately. Using company credit cards with robust fraud protection features and regularly monitoring transaction statements could also prevent financial mishaps.
Avoid Public Wi-Fi
In this day and age where everything is connected, people are tempted to use public Wi-Fi for their convenience, especially when on the go. However, bad actors would take such opportunities, especially in the winter holidays, to conduct cyberattacks on vulnerable devices and accounts.
For this, business executives are urged to tell their teams to avoid public Wi-Fi as much as possible or utilize virtual private networks (VPNs) or mobile hotspots to secure connections and protect sensitive information.
Watch for Subtle Threats
While some cyberattacks are blatant, others are not, and cybercriminals often take advantage of the winter holiday rush and its nature of goodwill to extract sensitive information.
One of the most crucial and effective preventions for firms is to educate and train teams to recognize and report such dubious requests, regardless of whether they came via email, phone calls, or social media.
Monitoring Access
Companies are also urged to monitor and take action to make sure that sensitive information is only accessed by people who are authorized to deal with them.
Such access restrictions - only granted on a need-to-know basis, would significantly reduce the risk of both accidental and malicious data breaches.
Secure Connections
Especially if employees and staff have the option to do remote work during the peak of the Christmas season, companies must ensure that remote work security policies are up-to-date and that all remote connections are secure.
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
Finally, having a well-defined incident response plan would be the best defense a company could rely on in case of a security breach. A plan that is well understood and can be swiftly executed by all team members can mitigate potential damage.
