Recipe for secure IT: How to prepare your protection against cybercrime

The Christmas season is a time of joy, presents and a well-deservedvacation, butwhilewelook forward to cookies and contemplation, cyber criminals don't put down theirlayers.On the contrary: the hustle and bustleof end-of-year business and the relaxedvacation mood ofprivateuserscreateanideal climate for digitalattacks.

This article highlights the 10 most common cybercrimes around Christmas and shows how you can protect yourself effectively, whether you're in a critical infrastructure office or at home.

A. 10 most common forms of cybercrime during the holiday season

The peak season for gift-giving and the simultaneous hustle and bustle of end-of-year business activities create a perfect environment for digital attacks. Cyber criminals specifically exploit the vacation mood and the reduced vigilance of many employees and private individuals.

Sensitive areas such as the healthcare sector or critical organizations in manufacturing are particularly at risk as they rely on the functionality of their systems. We therefore shed light on which digital threats occur most frequently during the "quiet season" and how you can arm yourself professionally against them.

Phishing attacks with a Christmas theme

• What it is: These are highly sophisticated, often personalized emails (spear phishing) that pose as trustworthy senders. During the Christmas period, these are often notifications about fake parcel deliveries from DHL, DPD or Amazon, invoices for gifts you have supposedly ordered or internal memos about the payment of Christmas bonuses.

• The scam: The aim is to mislead the recipient and get them to disclose sensitive information (login details, credit card details) or to open a malicious file attachment (e.g. a supposed "delivery overview" in .zip format). The hustle and bustle of gift-buying lowers the threshold for critical scanning.

Ransomware attacks on corporate networks (The enforced silence)

• What it is: Ransomware remains one of the biggest threats to digital business continuity. Attackers compromise systems and encrypt critical data to demand ransom (often in cryptocurrencies).

• The trick: attacks are strategically timed for the long Christmas weekend or just before the company vacations. They speculate that the emergency teams will be understaffed, recovery will take longer and the pressure to quickly restore normal operations (especially in hospitals or manufacturing companies) will lead to payment of the ransom.

E-skimming at online retailers (The digital pickpocket)

• What it is: Cybercriminals inject scripts (often referred to as "Magecart") into the checkout pages of compromised e-commerce platforms without the store operator or customer realizing it.

• The risk: While private users enter their credit card details to buy gifts, this data is sent to the attackers' infrastructure in real time. For store operators, this not only means financial damage, but also a massive loss of reputation and a breach of data protection regulations (e.g. GDPR).

Fake donation and charity pages (The fake charity)

• What it is: Due to increased year-end giving, scammers create professional-looking websites that mimic popular or new, emotive charities.

• The scam: The fake sites collect donations, the proceeds of which go directly to the criminals. They also steal the donors' payment details. It is often difficult for users to distinguish these sites from legitimate offers, as they are distributed via SEO poisoning or social media ads.

CEO fraud and Business Email Compromise (BEC) before the turn of the year (The hurried boss)

• What it is: This involves imitating the communication channels of executives. Criminals try to get accounting or finance employees to transfer large sums to fraudulent accounts under extreme urgency (e.g. "confidential transfer before the year-end closing, please process immediately").

• Time pressure: The perpetrators take advantage of the absence of the actual supervisor on vacation and the end-of-year stress to circumvent critical control mechanisms (such as reconfirmation by telephone).

Exploits in unpatched software (The forgotten maintenance)

• What it is: Many IT departments don't schedule critical patches until after the holidays to ensure stability during operations and the vacation season. This time gap between the release of a security patch and its implementation is deliberately exploited by attackers.

• The vulnerability: Attackers automatically scan the Internet for systems on which known but not yet closed vulnerabilities (zero-day or N-day exploits) are open in order to secure early access to the network.

Malicious advertisements (malvertising) (the malicious coupon)

• What it is: Malware is injected into legitimate websites via legitimate advertising networks. Victims often do not even have to click on the ad; the infection can occur as soon as the page is loaded (drive-by downloads).

• The trap: During Advent, advertising is often aimed at gifts, trips or special discounts, which increases the click rate. The malware that is installed in this way ranges from spyware to keyloggers.

Compromising IoT devices and smart home gadgets (The vulnerability under the tree)

• What it is: A plethora of new, networked devices (IP cameras, smart toys, voice assistants) are being given away and integrated into the home network without a second thought - often with the factory default passwords.

• The break-in: criminals use these insecure devices as a bridge to gain access via the private network to laptops or PCs that are also used for professional work in the home office (e.g. telemedicine applications).

Identity theft through public WLAN (The unsecured travel network)

• What it is: Many travelers quickly log into unsecured public Wi-Fi networks at airports, train stations or shopping malls to order last-minute gifts or check emails.

• The danger: criminals operate so-called "Evil Twin" networks (fake Wi-Fi access points) or carry out man-in-the-middle attacks to intercept data traffic. This is particularly risky when logging into company portals or online banking applications.

Cryptomining malware (the hidden load)

• What it is: In this form of cybercrime, the computing power of infected systems (office PCs, servers or private laptops) is misused to mine cryptocurrencies without the user's knowledge.

• The effect: the systems become extremely slow and the hardware is heavily loaded. In a business environment, for example when processing production data or patient data, this leads to massive performance losses and can jeopardize business continuity.
  
  

B. Simple tips: How offices can protect themselves during the Christmas rush

There is no need to take complex, expensive measures to ensure operational security over the holidays. Many cybercrime risks can be minimized by taking simple, disciplined precautions. Conduct a "digital Christmas inventory" before the turn of the year:

1. First, make sure all critical software patches and updates are applied before the IT department goes on vacation.

2. Secondly, conduct a targeted, final phishing training session in which you explicitly alert your employees to emails disguised as Christmas emails (parcel services, invoices).

3. Thirdly, review contingency plans and ensure that the contact details of key decision-makers are up-to-date and accessible in the event of a security incident.

4. Fourthly: Implement two-factor authentication (2FA) for important systems, if you have not already done so, to render stolen access data useless. Only with increased vigilance and clear protocols can peace of mind be digitally guaranteed during the holidays.

   
   

C. How offices can protect their cyber activities with Drivelock solutions?

Especially in security-sensitive sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing or critical organizations, loss of control in the hectic pre-holiday period is a massive risk. The DriveLock Hypersecure Platform offers a comprehensive protective shield that goes beyond pure antivirus protection and specifically addresses Christmas-related vulnerabilities:

• Application Control - Blocking the door to attackers: by defining which programs are allowed to run on an end device, the success of many phishing or malvertising attacks (points 1 and 7) is nipped in the bud. Even if an employee inadvertently opens a malicious attachment, the unknown malware cannot be launched if execution is blocked.

• Device Control - protection against the unattended gateway: The unintentional connection of foreign USB sticks can be a gateway for malware. Drivelock enables granular control of which removable media and devices can be used on the end devices.

• Vulnerability Management: Before employees go on vacation, it is essential to close known vulnerabilities (see vacation patch gap). The DriveLock solution helps to quickly check end devices and applications for vulnerabilities, prioritize them and patch them. This massively reduces the attack surface before attackers can exploit the absence of IT staff.

The centralized protection of the DriveLock Hypersecure Platform ensures that your systems are highly resistant to common forms of cybercrime, even during company vacations. The threat of cybercrime never sleeps, and the holidays in particular are a time of heightened activity for criminals.

Whether you're managing sensitive healthcare data, securing critical manufacturing operations or simply doing your private gift shopping, the watchword is to stay alert and use the right tools.

By having a clear strategy and using specialized solutions like Drivelock, organizations can ensure that their sensitive data remains protected so that IT professionals can truly rest easy.

DriveLock's security service, for example, is managed by experts, ready for immediate use, resource-saving, customizable and maximally secure. The DriveLock HYPERsecure Platform can be tested free of charge for 30 days without obligation.