The holiday season is when businesses have to rely on reduced employees and cybersecurity staffing.
The combination of increased online shopping and reduced availability of technical support staff makes the holidays an ideal time for cybercriminals to strike.
For many business owners, a cyberattack during this vulnerable period can be crippling — especially when lacking recovery resources. This is where proactive planning and expert cybersecurity consulting services can make a critical difference.
This guide offers practical cybersecurity tips for the holiday season — helping you safeguard your operations and build long-term business resilience. Let’s begin by exploring what makes this time of year especially risky for organizations.
Why Cyber Threats Escalate During the Holiday Season
During the holiday season, your business and customers experience higher email traffic from endless promotions.
- This chaotic environment — filled with urgent “ACT NOW” messages — provides the perfect cover for cybercriminals to hide their phishing attempts.
- At the same time, threat actors exploit the general rush of last-minute invoices and increased financial transactions.
The problem is often compounded by staffing shortages — with a skeleton crew on duty, your security operations are short-staffed, leaving fewer eyes to monitor for suspicious activity.
- This vulnerability has a measurable cost, with data showing a 70% spike in attempted ransomware attacks over the holidays.
The festive atmosphere can also leave your team in a distracted or relaxed state, which directly increases the risk of human error — like clicking a malicious link in a fake package tracking email.
Consequently, if an attack strikes, the pressure to pay a ransom is immense, as the cost of downtime during your peak sales season can be crippling. This combination of factors creates the perfect storm for cybercrime — making your business a prime target.
Understanding these vulnerabilities is the first step; the next is to implement the security measures that counter them.
Implement Core Technical Defenses Before the Rush Begins
To protect your digital assets, focus your efforts on a few foundational, high-impact technical controls:
Deploy Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
A critical defense against the common problems of weak or reused passwords and the subsequent account takeovers that result from them.
When you enable MFA, you add a powerful layer of security beyond just the password — like a code from your phone or a biometric scan. This stops 99.9% of automated account takeover attempts — making it an extraordinarily effective barrier.
Maintain Consistent Software Patching
The interest built through your awareness of threats must flow directly into patching the software and operating systems on all your devices, or endpoints.
Unpatched software vulnerabilities are a primary entry point for ransomware attacks. Therefore, for your technical defense to be effective, you must ensure all applications and operating systems are updated regularly to protect every connected endpoint.
Establish Reliable, Isolated Data Backups
Having reliable backups is the most effective way to recover from a ransomware attack without negotiating with criminals.
However, it is crucial that backups are kept offline or isolated from your primary network so the ransomware cannot encrypt them, too. Therefore, a verified, tested backup is the only way to turn a potential business-crippling crisis into a manageable recovery event.
While implementing these technical controls is a massive step forward, your technology is only as secure as the employees who use it every day. This brings us to the critical human element of your defense.
Also Read: How Can AI Safeguard SMBs in Cybersecurity
Train Your Employees to Recognize Holiday Scams
One of the most effective cybersecurity tips for the holiday is to recognize that a well-informed workforce is the first line of defense against cybercriminals.
During the holiday rush, the risk of human error hits higher levels — even your most tech-savvy employees can fall for fraudulent invoice payment requests or download harmful documents. And threat actors are aware that people are distracted during this busy season.
Social engineering and phishing scams are becoming more popular by the second. In fact, research shows these tactics are used in the vast majority of cyber attacks.
- A common holiday tactic is sending fake shipping notifications, which often contain malicious links or attachments designed to trick users into visiting fraudulent websites, giving up credentials, or installing malware on their devices.
These risks directly highlight the crucial human element of your security and the need to improve employee cybersecurity training.
Therefore, for your business’s defense to be effective:
- You must provide staff with thorough, up-to-date training.
- You have to come up with training ideas that employees will engage with.
With that in mind, focus on these few high-impact tips:
- Use Brief, Visual Reminders: Replace lengthy training with 60-second “Phishing Spotter: Tips in Pre-Holiday Team Meetings.” This trick is simple, yet super effective.
- Establish a Simple Reporting Process: Modify and categorize your response plan. Create a simple protocol like “Forward suspicious emails to security@company.com.” This way, when an employee sees a threat, they can report it smoothly.
- Advise on Generic Out-of-Office Messages: Tell your team why they need to use generic auto-replies for external contacts. A simple message could prevent scammers from getting information.
The awareness created through your employee training paves the way for the security habits collected during daily operations. And that’s the only way to turn your staff into a vigilant, year-round defense — our next area of focus.
Turn Seasonal Precautions Into a Year-Round Security Strategy
The most successful IT teams treat holiday security not as a seasonal chore but as a stress test for their year-round defenses.
This approach redefines the entire project — positioning it as a foundational audit of your business’s resilience.
- Creating meaningful protection means understanding that a big part of cybersecurity is being prepared for any attack. This is exactly the reason why a complete recovery plan is a vital aspect of ensuring business continuity after an incident.
For your security to survive and remain effective at any time of the year, it must be a continuous, integrated practice.
Follow these steps to build that crucial foundation:
- Track Recurring Incident Types: Helps identify systemic training gaps. This way, when you analyze holiday data, you can pinpoint exact weaknesses to address.
- Convert Temporary Measures Into Permanent Policy: If you implemented MFA for the holidays, mandate it year-round. It is a policy that guarantees a stronger security baseline.
- Leverage Post-Holiday Awareness: After the holidays, when security is top of mind for your team, schedule brief and regular security reminders throughout the year. This way, you maintain that vigilance and ensure employees consistently follow best practices.
By making these strategies a core part of your operations, you move beyond seasonal readiness and build a truly resilient business prepared for threats all year long.
Protecting Your Business is a Continuous Effort
Effective protection is a year-round priority, not just a seasonal task to check off your holiday list.
Navigating modern cybersecurity threats can be challenging for any business to manage alone, especially during the holiday season. At CMIT Solutions of Roanoke, we provide expert business IT consulting — helping you build a resilient foundation for ongoing cybersecurity.
Contact us today for a comprehensive IT assessment!
