The holidays are full of festivities, events, and parties and a significant increase in online shopping. For hackers, this adds up to the best time of year to catch people unaware and ready to spend money. It’s important to be aware and be extra vigilant to protect your business this holiday season.
Most Common Techniques Used by Holiday Hackers
Hackers are highly intelligent individuals and their methods grow ever-more sophisticated with time and the development of new technologies. That being said, the following three hacking strategies are the most common that see a significant increase during the holidays:
1) Phishing campaigns
Everyone is trying to get all their Christmas shopping done and stores are offering holiday specials left and right. Hackers capitalize on this by generating email phishing campaigns disguised as seemingly legitimate Christmas promotions and holiday deals. The user is hoping to take advantage of incredible Christmas deals and clicks on the link and proceeds to provide personal and credit card information. It’s important to learn how to identify phishing emails and websites and to train your employees.
2) Skimmers
Some identity thieves use this time to attack banks with skimmers on ATMs and other point of sale terminals. These skimmers are designed and installed to be all but unnoticeable by the vast majority of shoppers. Once you swipe your card, however, these thieves will have the information on the magnetic strip along with your PIN code. They will use this information to gain access to your bank account and the funds held there.
3) Distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS)
With this type of attack, the hackers overwhelm a particular online service with traffic from various sources in order to render it unavailable. It would be like an organized group of many different people crowding the entry to a store, preventing other normal customers and legitimate shoppers from entering. Because the attack comes from many different sources it’s impossible to stop it by going after one or even a few sources.
Managed Services: A Viable Option
You likely don’t have the time or resources necessary to be vigilant during the holidays. Not only are you also shopping and partaking in the festivities, but you’re also preparing your business for the new year. An excellent option for businesses during the holidays and year-round is managed IT services. In this case, a managed service provider takes over all your IT needs, including online security and protection from hackers, malware, and other online security threats. Knowing your network is secure, you can focus more of your invaluable time and resources on what you do best: building your business.
Keeping Your Holidays Cyber Safe
Enjoy all the food, fun, and holiday festivities as the year ends. Shop and eat and let the holiday cheer lift your spirits and bring you warmth even in the colder weather. This year, do it knowing your business network, employee data, and sensitive client information is safe from holiday hackers with managed IT services. Have a happy and cyber safe holiday season this year from Enstep to all of you!
To learn more about keeping your business network secure during the holidays and year-round, Contact Us.
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