Cybersecurity experts emphasize the importance of staying vigilant and proactive, especially during periods of reduced staffing. Attackers, known for their patience, often take advantage of holidays and slow periods to target organizations when their defenses are down. These cybercriminals infiltrate corporate chat systems, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, and silently observe conversations, noting key information about employees and upcoming vacation plans.
One organization experienced the devastating consequences of such an attack when an attacker posed as a trusted colleague in a chat channel. The attacker tricked a junior employee into making critical configuration changes while many team members were on vacation. The isolated employee, eager to help and unaware of the deception, fell victim to the attacker’s social engineering tactics.
Ed Skoudis, the president of the SANS Institute, stresses the need for verification, vigilance, and better operational safeguards during times of reduced staffing. Global organizations must ensure cybersecurity continuity even when a significant portion of their workforce is on holiday or vacation. Attackers exploit these moments of reduced staffing to launch their attacks, knowing that organizations are more vulnerable during these periods.
Chris Niggel, a regional CSO at Okta, points out that attackers take advantage of the operational gaps that occur during slow periods. Patching schedules, configuration monitoring, and incident response times may lag when teams are short-staffed. Organizations need to focus on maintaining service levels and reacting to threats quickly, even with fewer team members available.
Preparation is key to bridging these gaps in security. By identifying risks, training employees, leveraging technology, and strategically distributing workloads, companies can create a safety net that protects both systems and operations. It is essential to have proactive strategies in place before teams go offline to mitigate holiday risks effectively.
Creating a plan in advance, training employees to always verify requests for urgent actions, deploying technology and automation, freezing changes for critical systems during slow periods, and adopting a “follow-the-sun” model for multinational organizations are all crucial steps in enhancing cybersecurity during holidays and reduced staffing periods.
In addition to technical measures, fostering a culture of collaboration and reducing isolation among employees during skeleton crew periods is also essential for effective defense. Encouraging better communication, providing clear escalation paths, and ensuring that junior employees know where to seek help can make a significant difference in mitigating cyber threats.
Overall, maintaining a high level of vigilance and suspicion is crucial for cybersecurity during slow periods and holidays. Attackers do not take breaks, and organizations must stay prepared, verify any suspicious activity, and have strong staffing strategies in place to protect their systems and data. By combining technology, planning, and teamwork, companies can stay one step ahead of cyber threats and prevent potential disasters.