The holiday season is around the corner, and so the attackers are ready with their tools to leverage vulnerabilities. In recent years, some of the most impactful cyberattacks have also been discovered during Christmas and New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are a CISO or a senior security professional, then you don\u2019t need to fret more. Here, we have provided a complete list of approaches, techniques, and methods that can help you secure IT infrastructure during the holidays and enjoy the festivals with your loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the West, the holiday season is during Christmas and New Year (25th<\/sup> December to 1st<\/sup> January). During this time, most organizations declare holidays, as Christmas is the biggest festival among people in the American, Australian, and European continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, retail sales are at their highest at this time of the year. People buy stuff for their homes and gifts for their loved ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Deloitte reports, 65% of people are shopping online, and the number is increasing this year. Among these people, 29% are looking to purchase their favorite products at event sales, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As online shopping increases, so does the risk of becoming a victim of a cyber-attack. Let\u2019s look at its details in the further section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most employees are on holiday or working from home during Christmas and New Year. Also, email marketing campaigns are on the verge. Due to this, personal and organizational cybersecurity is at the highest risk during the holiday period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attackers try their best to impersonate companies and conduct phishing attacks the security professionals are not around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, numerous firms have also discovered a rise of 73% in cyber attacks during the holiday period 2022. And this number is going to increase more in 2023. On Average, Cyberattacks increase by 40% in the holiday season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If we look at the holiday season of 2022, numerous attacks are impacting the core of globally recognized organizations, such as:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All such factors conclude that the holiday season can be an open invitation for attackers if you lack any security controls. To help you in this aspect, we have provided the TTLs from top security professionals, supporting the prevention of illegitimate actors during holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can follow the tips, recommendations, and techniques below to secure your digital presence when most of the employees are on holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nowadays, most companies offer their service and products through a website. Whenever a customer has to purchase a product, they navigate to your site, add it to the cart, and make the payment. However, if your website is not secure, all the customer details will be accessible to a hacker. Also, it will initiate legal action against the firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, you should use a trusted SSL\/TLS certificate for your website, such as DV SSL<\/a>, OV SSL<\/a>, or EV SSL<\/a>. Such a digital certificate enables HTTPS to transport every bit through an encrypted channel. As a result, data integrity and confidentiality are maintained. Also, you align with the defined security standards to operate an online business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All the companies operating online, providing software, and even communicating internally, use a digital certificate, such as SSL\/TLS and Code signing certificates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All these certificates have a validity period, after which they start displaying errors to users and disable them from accessing the software. Sometimes, confidential information is also disclosed through errors in browsers, which can be useful to attackers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also Read:<\/strong> What Is Certificate Automation? How Automation Helps Prevent SSL Attacks?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, before the beginning of the holiday season, you should ensure that all the certificates are valid until the office resumes. However, if you discover a certificate expiring during the Christmas break, its renewal must be automated. You can use the certificate manager applications for automating the certificate lifecycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Renew your Digital Certificate Now without any Hassle<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In recent years, numerous breaches<\/a> have been registered, and one of their main root causes has been outdated operating systems, firmware, and drivers. Such software files can contain vulnerabilities, leading the attacker to exploit them and gain privileged access to the organization’s internal system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To avoid any such mishap at your firm, update all operating systems, drivers, and firmware files to the latest version. In addition, always test the update in an isolated environment before pushing it to the significant machines. It will make you ensure that the update fulfills compatibility, security, stability, and performance requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Network intrusion and exfiltration are the prime attack types preferred by hackers to enter a company’s system. To prevent illegitimate attackers from breaching your network, utilize a next-generation firewall with IDS (Intrusion Detection System) and IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) functionalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, you should update all the firewall policies according to the working hours and availability of the employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, both standard and extended access lists used for DMZ, internal, and public-facing systems should also be updated according to the:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Backup servers must be configured and tested before the Christmas break starts. It will help you ensure data availability. The backup server will be highly helpful in the following cases:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, you need to implement daily backups for complete data to let employees use that information for their operations after the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the employees work remotely during Christmas and the New Year. To secure their access to the company resources, you should configure a VPN service. The VPN will establish a secure connection from the employee\u2019s system to the company\u2019s internal network. Also, it will help you track the services being used, data being retrieved, and operations being executed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, the attackers will be prevented from performing a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack<\/a>. The data integrity and confidentiality will be retained until the VPN is enabled with the strongest encryption algorithm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further, you must ensure that a valid SSL certificate is configured on the websites owned by your company. It will support you in maintaining user security and offering services seamlessly. Using an authentic SSL certificate from a globally renowned CA like Comodo<\/a>, Sectigo<\/a>, Certera<\/a>, and DigiCert<\/a> is always recommended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thoroughly plan every possible threat and risk factor to create an incident response plan. All critical cybersecurity personnel should be on standby to immediately react if anything unexpected happens. Whether it’s an application, network, endpoint, infrastructure, or other security team, all must be available on call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, focus on the following points while creating an incident response plan:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Need Professional IT or Cyber Security Consulting for your Website or Organization? <\/p>\n– Talk to Our Cyber Security Experts<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Globally renowned cybersecurity firms and professionals recommend MFA or Multi-Factor Authentication<\/a>. For a robust security infrastructure, MFA must be configured on every system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can follow the below MFA plan to avoid data exfiltration:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Risk assessment is a must to perform tasks before the holidays. It helps you identify the vulnerabilities, assess their criticality level, and plan mitigation. While performing risk assessment, you are required to focus on the following aspects\/factors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Assess the security posture of your website,identify the malicious areas and resolve the security concern<\/p>\n– Purchase SiteLock Now<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Regardless of the holidays, you should prefer using email or SMIME certificates<\/a> in your organization. It will help the employees to authenticate the identity of the sender easily and also encrypt the messages. Due to this, confidential information will remain secure, and phishing attacks will also be reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the holiday season, most businesses offer heavy discounts due to Christmas and New Year’s. They use email marketing campaigns to reach out to their customers and target audience. Attackers also use this email technique to gain valuable insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Illegitimate actors use spoofed email addresses to perform phishing and whaling attacks<\/a>. To prevent these attacks, you need to train the workforce to differentiate between authentic and spoofed mail<\/a>, offering discounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, the employees should be trained not to click any unauthorized link, not to open a third-party site on their work device, and to always access websites with HTTPS only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cyber attacks can be encountered from anywhere, so you should prefer providing company devices to employees for work from home. All the laptops and mobiles given to employees must be bound to organizational policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You should define the access lists to deny access to third-party websites, e-commerce stores, streaming services, and unsecure web apps. In addition, installation of additional software, using a USB, and connecting to public Wi-Fi must be restricted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, you can define the policies according to your requirements to make the IT infrastructure secure during holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the rise in cyber-attacks during the holiday season, it’s necessary to follow the top-recommended techniques, tactics, and procedures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a security professional or CISO, you can provide training to employees, have a team on standby, conduct risk assessments, update complete infrastructure, and automate IDS, IPS, logging, and monitoring systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, you are required to have a check on all the activity to ensure data integrity and availability. By doing so, you can provide a gift of confidentiality to your loved ones and business stakeholders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why Focus More on Security During Holidays?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Tips, Techniques, and Tactics To Strengthen Cybersecurity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Use SSL\/TLS For All Server-Browser Communications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Automate Certificate Renewal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Update OS, Applications, Drivers, and Firmware<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Update Firewall Policies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Configure Backup Servers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Enable VPNs and SSL<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Have an Incident Response Team on Standby<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Upgrade To MFA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Perform Risk Assessment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Utilize Email Digital Certificates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Provide Training<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Update Employee Device Policies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Concluding Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n