Whilst you might be winding down your business in preparation for the festive break, it’s important to remember that cyber criminals don’t take a break. Over this period, where a number of businesses are out of action for a week or two, the chances of falling victim to a cyber attack increase greatly.
Christmas breaks are a prime time for cyber criminals to take advantage of weaknesses within your cyber security defences. At this time of year, where numerous businesses rely on skeleton staff, or no staff at all, your business is particularly vulnerable.
Malicious cyber attacks often take advantage of businesses over the festive season and aim to disrupt vital business networks and systems that belong to organisations, critical infrastructure and businesses. Although it is Christmas, it’s important that you have a cyber security plan in place to protect your business all year round.
There is no business which is immune to cyber threats and attacks and ensuring that your business can get back up and running quickly and efficiently following an attack is vital. Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which you can keep your business protected against cyber threats this Christmas.
Having a cyber incident response plan in place ensures that, in the event of a cyber attack, there are a clear set of defined instructions which help your business to prepare, detect and respond appropriately, as well as helping your business recover as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Having a cyber incident response plan that outlines the recovery process means that everyone in your business knows what it required should they identify an incident, mitigating the impact a cyber attack will have on your business. Ensure the plan includes a checklist, action plan and documents which can be quickly utilised in the event of an attack or breach.
In recent years, ransomware has become an evolving threat against businesses and one which, if initiated, can affect almost any business which does not have proper defences in place. Ransomware is a common type of malware which prevents you from being able to access data on a shared network or individual device. Data can become encrypted or even deleted, and devices can be locked. Cyber criminals will then ask for large sums of money to unlock devices or retreive data and, as businesses typically value this information, will likely pay it.
By carrying out regular and frequent data back ups, you can ensure that in the event of a ransomware your business is able to quickly restore itself and any affected business functions. It’s important to consider having offline backups of this data, as this is then protected against cyber threats and attacks.
You can also clear and restore any affected encrypted devices and then restore them using the offline backup. Before you and your team head off for a well deserved Christmas break, ensure you have carried out a backup of any important and valuable data and take an offline backup home with you.
Almost every type of electronic device can hold and store important or sensitive personal and financial information and data. This is why it is important to keep any software on these devices regularly updated and secured using strong passwords and additional security measures,
Software and network companies keep things safe and secure by regularly releasing updates and security upgrades, so it is important to regularly check for any new updates. Apple, for example, regularly review their security settings in the hunt for any bugs and, if they are found, updates are rolled out across all devices. Before shutting down for Christmas, take some time to review devices and networks for any recommended updates and install if required.
To keep devices safe and secure over the festive period, look to install 2-factor authentication so that another level of protection is needed in order to access. This could be in the form of a random, app-generated code, face ID or a secure one-time passcode being sent to a master device which is then needed to unlock the device in question.
For employees who are looking to do some work from home over the holidays, ask that they either use a secure internet connection or make the use of VPNs mandatory, which helps to ensure that only authorised users are able to access any sensitive business information.
