While many of us look forward to the joy and celebration of the upcoming holiday season, another group of people shares the same sense of anticipation: cyberthieves.

There are several reasons why businesses are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks during the holidays:

• Increased online activity: More data is transmitted online with increased shopping volume. This presents a greater opportunity for cybercriminals to intercept and steal sensitive information.
  
  
• Distracted employees: Employees are often more distracted around the holidays, making them more susceptible to phishing scams and other social engineering attacks.
  
  
• Limited staffing: Many businesses have reduced staffing levels during the holidays, making detecting and responding to cyberattacks more difficult.

Taken together or alone, these factors can make a business particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks during the upcoming weeks.

In fact, the week between Christmas and New Year’s – usually a quiet week for many companies – is a prime week for cyberthieves. 

According to a Darktrace study, ransomware attacks have globally increased 30 percent during this week in subsequent years, and cyberattacks generally peak in November and December during the extended holiday season.

Case Study: A Christmas Cyber Catastrophe

A few years ago, the incident response team at Intersec Worldwide received a distress call from an organization that had been tipped off by a third party about a potential security breach. The urgency of the situation prompted Intersec's forensic experts to mobilize immediately and head to the affected organization's premises.

• The team initiated a rapid and thorough investigation to assess the extent of the breach and identify the attack vectors. 
• Initial analyses revealed a sophisticated intrusion that had exploited vulnerabilities in the organization's website. 

The attacker, leveraging the weaknesses in both the web application and the broader network architecture, had managed to establish a foothold and swiftly navigate through the flat network.

One of the critical aspects of the breach was the attacker's ability to exploit a vulnerability in the website, allowing them to bypass security measures and gain unauthorized access. The forensic experts traced the initial intrusion back to a specific event that occurred at 3:00 am Central Time on December 25th, Christmas Morning, adding an eerie twist to the unfolding cyber saga.

Flat Network Structure Lead to Cyber Risk

The flat network structure of the organization played a pivotal role in facilitating the attacker's lateral movement. 

• With limited segmentation and a lack of robust access controls, the intruder seamlessly navigated through the interconnected systems, rapidly compromising critical assets along the way. 
• The lack of proper network segmentation allowed the attacker to escalate privileges and move laterally with minimal detection, heightening the severity of the breach.

As the investigation progressed, Intersec's experts uncovered traces of a sophisticated malware strain that exhibited evasion techniques, making it challenging to detect and analyze. The malware had been strategically designed to remain stealthy and persistent within the compromised environment.

How the Holiday Cyber Attack Was Planned

The timeline reconstruction revealed a meticulous and well-planned attack, raising suspicions of a nation-state actor or an advanced persistent threat (APT) group. The attackers seemed to have extensive knowledge of the organization's infrastructure, indicating a potentially long reconnaissance period before the actual breach occurred.

Intersec's incident response team worked tirelessly to contain the threat, isolate affected systems, and initiate remediation efforts. Simultaneously, they collaborated with the organization's IT and security teams to implement enhanced security measures, including patching vulnerabilities, fortifying the network architecture, and improving incident detection capabilities.

The unfolding cyber incident underscored the evolving sophistication of cyber threats and the importance of proactive security measures. 

As Intersec Worldwide continued to delve deeper into the investigation, the true motives behind the breach and the identity of the perpetrators remained shrouded in the digital shadows, leaving the organization and its defenders on high alert in the ever-changing landscape of cyber warfare.

5 Tips for Protecting Your Company from Holiday Cyberattacks

1. Maintain cautious staffing levels: While keeping the IT department fully staffed during a quiet holiday lull may not be necessary, maintaining an on-call schedule can help quickly address any cyber concern.
   
   
2. Remind employees about cybersecurity: Make sure your employees are aware of the latest cybersecurity threats and how to protect themselves from falling victim to them. Remind employees to report suspicious activity, such as unusual system behavior or email requests, immediately.
   
   
3. Implement robust security measures: Use strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, and firewalls to protect your network. Protect email systems from attack by installing phishing email filters – often, these attacks begin with a simple click by an unsuspecting employee.
   
   
4. Back up your data regularly: This will help you recover it if is lost in a cyberattack.
   
   
5. Have a plan for responding to cyberattacks: Solid incident response and communication plans will help minimize downtime and damage if any attack occurs.

As a full-service cybersecurity firm, Intersec Worldwide can help your company create a robust cybersecurity plan that includes critical, additional proactive steps to protect you during the holiday season.

To learn more about how we can keep your data, systems, and customers safe, contact our team to learn more about these services.