Holiday periods are times of the year of rest and tranquility, however, they are the times when more cyberattacks occur. Normally happens to particular people when they are booking their holidays online, due to the number of fraudulent websites that are created for those dates. However, it is also quite common for companies to fall victim to cybercriminals on vacation.
In this article, you will be able to know the reasons, the main cyberattacks that occur on vacations, and ways to prevent your company from being a victim of cybercriminals during holiday periods.
Cyberattacks increase by 40% in holiday periods
The summer period is the time of the year with more cyberattacks on companies. These are the moments where cybercriminals take advantage to get hold of the confidential information of many companies and infect their systems.
The shortage of personnel on those dates is one of the factors that make companies have less security than usual to protect their systems. Cybersecurity professionals and IT technicians are also absent during these periods, so if the staff is not available it is necessary for companies to start considering implementing security systems in their equipment and work systems.
Last year cyberattacks on vacations increased up to 73%, however, several cybersecurity experts already warned that this year a large increase in cyberattacks is expected and that only in the month of June they already increased by 60% worldwide, especially in travel and leisure companies.
Most common methods of attack on companies
There are numerous threats to which any company is exposed during the summer period, then you can know the most common today:
- Email as the main method of a cyberattack: on vacation, it is common for employees of a company who are absent to have an automatic response in the email that notifies them of their absence. This allows cybercriminals to know which people are out of the office.
- The use of mobile phones outside the office: it is common that, although many employees are on vacation, they have installed on their mobile the company’s mail to occasionally check how everything is going at work in case there is an emergency. However, in many cases employees unknowingly download malicious applications that pose a threat to the company. According to a report by Check Point in 2021, 46% of companies have suffered cyberattacks for these reasons.
- Wi-Fi connections open on holidays: Internet connections on holidays are elements that pose a great threat. It is common to connect to free open wifis to avoid spending data, however, the problem is when through these open networks you connect to your company to make use of confidential information, that is when anyone can have access to company data.
- Phishing attacks: they are the most common attacks at any time of the year and on vacation, they increase. These times make us calmer and more relaxed so we are not aware aware of the possibility of being hacked.
- Identity theft: on vacation, it is common for new employees to arrive at the company, this makes many cybercriminals impersonate other people that the new workers do not yet know.
- Employees, the most vulnerable factor: as we have mentioned before, the lack of knowledge of employees in cybersecurity makes this a threat. It is important to train workers in cybersecurity so that any of the above points occur.
How do avoid cyberattacks on vacation?
Next, you can learn about some methods to avoid cyberattacks at this time of year:
- Make sure there are no security breaches in your systems: conduct regular audits to see what elements are failing and need to be improved. These audits should be carried out throughout the year, however, with the arrival of the holiday seasons, it is more advisable to carry them out due to the shortage of personnel in the office to support any threat.
- Implement cybersecurity solutions that adapt to your company: every business must know in which elements it needs more cybersecurity and in which less, so it is advisable to have external companies that have a wide variety of cybersecurity solutions and see which are the ones that best adapt to the needs of your company.
- Awareness and training of employees in cybersecurity: it is important both to raise awareness and train workers about the role that cybersecurity occupies today and what to do to avoid being the victim of a cyberattack.
As we have said before, employees are usually the main causes for which a cyberattack is suffered in a company, since they do not have enough knowledge to deal with a possible threat.
- Avoid connecting to open networks: the connection to public networks means that multiple cyberattacks can enter our system as there are no security barriers to prevent them from entering. That is why whenever possible you should connect to secure and private networks.
CENTUM Digital solutions
In CENTUM Digital we are experts in cybersecurity and we have a wide range of solutions adaptable to each company.
We are aware of the number of cyberattacks that occur in companies during vacations so it is necessary to invest in cybersecurity to prevent further damage.
Contact us if you want to know our portfolio of solutions and how we can help you.
