Don’t let holidays be your cybersecurity downfall

Cybercriminals today are consistently working to find new ways to trap potential victims. From masquerading themselves as legitimate users in a network or using new and evolving techniques to slip past detection mechanisms, the array of sophisticated tools in the arsenals of threat actors continues to grow.

And the timing of attacks is also crucial. A survey of nearly 1,000 security professionals found that 86% of companies targeted by ransomware were attacked on a holiday or weekend, while three quarters of the ransomware victims suffered an attack during a major corporate event, such as a merger, acquisition or IPO. Clearly, ransomware groups are striking outside of normal business hours, looking to take advantage of enterprise defenses that are likely to be either lowered or entirely offline.