NetworkTigers discusses best practices for small business cybersecurity during the holiday season.
The holiday season is an important annual sales opportunity for small businesses to finish the year strong. It is also an opportunity for cybercriminals to exploit the increased web traffic and distractions accompanying the most wonderful time of the year. Ensuring that your holiday cybersecurity protocols are firmly in place can help keep your company functioning into the new year without interruption.
From scam emails and phony gifts to ransomware attacks and commerce-crippling DDoS attacks, criminal activity during the holidays can severely impact sales, customer satisfaction, and a company’s reputation.
Is your company prepared? Check out the following best practices to stay safe.
Keep up with employee training and awareness
Cybercriminals know when businesses are at their most vulnerable. Overworked or otherwise distracted employees can easily fall victim to social engineering or phishing campaigns. Scams that target workers are one of the most common threats to small businesses, and working to prevent them is a fundamental component of maintaining good holiday cybersecurity.
Ensure that all workers are on high alert for any suspicious messages that use language implying urgency, free items, raffles, or gift cards. Employees should be able to identify the telltale signs of a phishing attempt, stick to security protocols, and verify that any messages they receive from coworkers are legitimate.
Workers on the receiving end of phone calls, emails, and customer inquiries are especially vulnerable, as they can become too overwhelmed with legitimate messages to notice whether or not the one they’re about to click is malicious. You may want to invest in additional temporary staff to lighten the load and provide more eyes.
Seasonal workers, however, are often less familiar with proper standards and procedures than regular ones. Ensure they receive adequate security training and are only allowed to access what they need for their daily tasks.
Be sure your systems are up to date
If you have been slacking on maintaining your operating systems, applications, or firmware, ensure that everything you need to run your business safely is equipped with the latest security updates and patches. Threat actors know that the busy holiday season means that some victims will be unable to react quickly enough to prevent them from exploiting unpatched bugs.
If you haven’t already, automate updates whenever possible so these necessary actions happen in the background and don’t need to be manually executed. The benefits of automation extend far beyond holiday cybersecurity and will make your organization more resistant to cyberattacks all year.
Make sure that remote workers stay safe
Even companies that don’t otherwise take advantage of remote work may find themselves doing so as staff travels. Don’t let the vulnerabilities inherent to out-of-office workers weaken your holiday cybersecurity.
To help fortify this expanded attack surface, workers should use company devices that tightly adhere to the business’s security protocols instead of personal ones that are more subject to careless or accidental compromise. These devices should be loaded with current antivirus and antimalware protections and any firewall solutions available.
Additionally, a VPN can ensure that those working from home or a family member’s house can access company data via an encrypted connection. Public wifi should be avoided.
Back up all critical data
An early December cyberattack can take a business out of the season entirely if adequate backups are not regularly maintained.
Business owners are wise to stick to the 3-2-1 data backup strategy, which suggests that two copies of company data should be stored on two different media types, and one additional copy should be stored offsite or kept on the cloud.
These backups should be automated and tested regularly to ensure your company can quickly get its balance back should an attack occur.
Check up on your access controls
Use only strong passwords, and be sure that multifactor authentication is enabled wherever possible. If your access controls have gotten lax over the years, tighten them up to only allow employees permission to view and use the data or applications they need to perform their jobs.
If accounts belonging to former employees or contractors are still present, terminate them to ensure that functional login credentials don’t make their way into the hands of threat actors who may use them to disrupt your system, deceive your customers, or stage a ransomware attack.
This maintenance is critical at any time of the year but becomes especially important when you assess your holiday cybersecurity amidst the seasonal increase in criminal activity.
Keep up with network monitoring
Increased web traffic during the holidays can give criminals the confidence to meddle with your network and not be detected. Be sure that your traffic monitoring systems are up to the task of keeping up with influxes while still calling out any activity that looks suspicious.
Segmenting your network to isolate certain critical components from internet access altogether is a practice that should be implemented. If your business offers public wifi, make sure that there is no way anyone using it can access your internal network.
Have a plan in the event of a cyberattack
If a cybersecurity incident occurs, having a planned response can make the difference between swiftly righting the ship or extending downtime indefinitely. IT administrators should know the steps and procedures to follow if a breach or attack is in progress and refresh themselves on them regularly.
Employees company-wide, from desk clerks to maintenance crews, should be familiar with the roles they should take on in an emergency and the rules they should adhere to around device and internet usage during such an event.
Educate customers on fake websites and scams
In 2023, Americans lost $10 billion to scammers, with credit fraud, identity theft, data security, and shopping fraud making up the top four scams affecting the most people. Holiday scams can come in many forms, from phony charities to fake gift cards, messages about “missed” deliveries, and more.
Threat actors can also create lookalike emails and websites that mimic your company’s look and language while advertising deep discounts. Customers looking to score savings can be easily misled into handing over their credit card information to these fraudulent sites.
To help prevent this, send informational emails to your customers warning them of common holiday scams and, more specifically, how to separate a fake email or request from one your business sent. For example, inform them that they will never be asked for any credit card or login data via email and let them know how to report any suspicious activity or messages to you.
This kind of scheme not only steals from your loyal customers but can also cause severe damage to your reputation among those who have taken the bait and end up feeling that your business ripped them off or cheated them in some way. Keeping up with holiday cybersecurity requires everyone to be aware, educated, and on guard.
About NetworkTigers
NetworkTigers is the leader in the secondary market for Grade A, seller-refurbished networking equipment. Founded in January 1996 as Andover Consulting Group, which built and re-architected data centers for Fortune 500 firms, NetworkTigers provides consulting and network equipment to global governmental agencies, Fortune 2000, and healthcare companies. www.networktigers.com.
All articles sponsored by NetworkTigers.
