Though most holiday cybersecurity tip guides are directed at shoppers looking to safely make purchases online, there are some considerations that businesses of all sizes should take in order to continue secure operations during the most wonderful time of year. Here are some tips to assist you and your employees in keeping cybersecurity a priority this holiday season. 

Limit Employee Email Forwarding to Personal Accounts– Rather than employees forwarding their professional emails to their personal email addresses in order to stay in-the-know during the holiday season, advise individuals to delegate their work while they are away by setting up Out of Office automatic reply messages that guide people who are attempting to reach out to them via email to the proper backup contact for whatever urgent requests they might have. Employees should also include the caveat that anything that is not an emergency can and will be addressed in the new year upon the employee’s return to work. 

Update Devices –  Encourage employees to update devices before going on vacation so as to avoid the vulnerability that is presented by out-of-date security and operating systems on a device. This simple step protects your entire company’s network by avoiding leaving any potential points of access open to attackers. 

Utilize Firewall to Detect Abnormal Network Traffic – A firewall is essentially a protective gate around your business’s networks; it acts as a filter which allows good, legitimate traffic to flow in and out of your website while blocking illegitimate traffic from hitting your entity. Use a firewall to detect any abnormal or malicious-seeming activity and block said traffic from your site in order to stay secure and protected.This tool assists in thwarting attack attempts from cybercriminals and adds an extra layer of protection to your business, especially during the holiday season when many employees are out of office for extended periods of time, including the cyber pros.

Educate Employees on Phishing Attacks - One of the most pervasive cyber attacks is phishing, where malicious actors try to dupe recipients of scam emails into handing over essential information or clicking on fake links that lead the user to infect their own devices with malware from the sender. These ever-present emails are sent out with even more frequency and urgency around the holidays with attackers hoping that frantic shoppers fall for their tricks while looking for the best gift for loved ones online. 

This also applies to targeted attacks on businesses, where phishers will try to use employees as a way to gain access to a company’s networks - and with many employees being a bit more lax around the holiday season, this is the prime time for attackers to strike. Be sure to inform employees on how they can best operate vigilantly and securely while online so as to contribute to and not make vulnerable the overall company’s cybersecurity efforts. 

Backup and Encrypt Crucial Data - Before employees head out for the holidays, be sure to direct them to save and back up crucial data to a separate network. Saving data is essential to not losing the progress made on different files an employee has been working on; backing up copies of data to a separate network goes a step further to save the data in case of a cyber attack, such as ransomware, in which the attacker steals data and holds it for ransom. Encrypting this data so that it is unreadable to any viewer who does not have the decryption key goes even further in protecting your business’s essential data.

At all times of year, it is important to operate with cybersecurity in mind - be sure to continue this during the holiday season in order to set your business up for a wonderful new year ahead!

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