Following cyberattacks throughout the previous holidays this year, federal agencies are issuing warnings about potential ransomware attacks aimed at U.S. organizations ahead of the Labor Day weekend.

In a statement on Tuesday, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) expressed their concerns and noted that, despite the lack of particular threat information, prior holiday weekends have provided cybercriminals with opportunity for attacks.

The following is a list of holiday season risks and suggestions for how to combat them:

  • Increase Your Alertness During the Holidays. Cybercriminals target firms in Q4 on purpose because they anticipate that they will have fewer employees or maybe be too busy at the end of the year. Keep systems patched as a first step, and inform staff about cybersecurity dangers including phishing and precautions. Keep an eye out for unusual activity, such as access from nations where you have no business or clients.
  • Secure POS environments for data. Consumers may safely execute transactions and purchases thanks to point-of-sale (POS) terminals. These gadgets interact with banks and payment processors as well as vital assets and infrastructure. Fileless assaults, ransomware, zero-day attacks, and skimmers physically installed on machines are some examples of POS risks.
  • Keep Work-from-Home Security in Mind: As laptops continue to be used outside of the corporate IT perimeter, your customers will continue to experience new cybersecurity concerns. During the holidays, employees may utilize company computers for online shopping or charitable donations, or they may use less secure personal laptops for work-related tasks.
  • Strengthen endpoint security and use MFA. It is obvious that traditional endpoint security products like anti-virus are insufficient because more than 70% of threats originate on network endpoints like laptops and mobile devices. Authenticate with several factors (MFA). A simple method to improve your security posture is to use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to increase authentication protection.
  • Restricting access to data Sensitive information should only ever be accessible to those who need to know. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), a feature of modern security platforms, prevents individuals from reading sensitive information outside of their assigned roles. Don’t forget to take proactive measures to promptly terminate access when it is no longer required.
  • Perform a vulnerability scan. Consider yourself a hacker and identify your weaknesses. Managed vulnerability scanning finds security holes, prioritizes them, and closes them before attackers do and profit from them.
  • Continue thorough monitoring and visibility. A Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), a key building block for security teams, starts with the gathering, standardization, and archiving of security event data for analysis and the provision of real-time warnings.

We are all excited on the long weekend as we all deserve this relaxation and rest, but we all need to make sure that we are going back to work carrying stress- free mind because no threats entered our business data. Learn more about CYB3R-X and how our managed threat protection can get you at ease all year round!