While you’re planning holiday parties and year-end celebrations, cybercriminals are planning something entirely different. December consistently sees a spike in successful cyberattacks, and it’s not a coincidence. Hackers know exactly what they’re doing when they target businesses during the holiday season.
Here’s what you need to know, and this is happening right now.
Why December Is Prime Time for Cybercriminals
Think about what December looks like in your office. Half your team is out on vacation. The people who are there are distracted, rushing to finish projects before year-end, and dealing with a flood of shipping notifications and holiday emails. Your IT staff might be running on a skeleton crew. Everyone’s guard is down just a little bit.
Hackers know this. They count on it.
December combines the perfect storm of conditions that make cyberattacks more likely to succeed. Reduced staffing means slower response times to suspicious activity. Distracted employees are more likely to click on phishing emails. The flood of legitimate holiday shopping notifications provides perfect cover for fake ones. And the pressure to close deals and finish financial tasks before year-end creates urgency that scammers exploit ruthlessly.
The Holiday Threats Targeting Your Business Right Now
Phishing Gets a Holiday Makeover
Your inbox is already flooded with shipping notifications, right? Hackers are counting on that. Fake UPS, FedEx, and Amazon delivery notifications look incredibly convincing. So do emails about holiday bonuses, year-end tax documents, or urgent payment requests that need to be processed before the office closes for the holidays.
These aren’t obvious scams anymore. Thanks to the help of AI, emails look professional, the sender addresses appear legitimate at first glance, and the sense of urgency feels real.
Reduced Staffing Vulnerabilities
If you have an IT team, whose monitoring systems are on when they’re on vacation? If you don’t have dedicated IT staff, who’s keeping an eye on your security during the holiday chaos? Who’s responding to alerts? Who’s available when something goes wrong? Hackers target holiday periods specifically because they know response times will be slower and fewer people will be watching.
Year-End Financial Urgency
The pressure to close deals, process payments, and handle financial transactions before year-end creates perfect conditions for business email compromise scams. A seemingly urgent request from a “vendor” or “executive” to wire funds or change payment details can slip through when everyone’s rushing to finish before the holidays.
Your Pre-Holiday Security Checklist
Right Now, Before People Start Taking Time Off:
Review your vacation coverage plan. Who’s monitoring systems when your IT team is out? Make sure someone is designated and actually available (not just technically on-call while traveling).
- Remind your team about holiday scams. A quick all-hands email or team meeting about what to watch for can prevent a lot of problems. Make sure they know to verify any urgent requests through a second channel, especially anything involving money or sensitive data.
- Enable or verify multi-factor authentication across all critical systems. This single step stops the majority of credential-based attacks cold.
For Your IT/Security Team:
- Update and patch everything possible before the holiday rush. Don’t let critical updates wait until January.
- Review and test your backup systems. If something goes wrong during the holidays, you need to know your data is actually recoverable.
- Set up monitoring alerts that will actually reach someone who can respond. Review who gets those alerts and make sure the contacts are current.
- Check your remote access security. With people working from home or traveling, make sure VPN access is secure and properly configured.
For Your Team:
- Establish a verification process for any financial requests or changes. If an email asks you to change payment information or wire funds, verify it through a phone call to a known number (not one provided in the email).
- Be extra cautious with shipping notifications. If you weren’t expecting a package, don’t click the link. Go directly to the carrier’s website instead.
- Report anything suspicious immediately, even if you’re not sure. It’s better to flag something that turns out to be legitimate than to ignore something that’s actually a threat.
Don’t Let Your Guard Down
The holidays are stressful enough without dealing with a security breach. The good news? Most of these attacks are preventable with awareness and basic precautions. The key is taking action now, before your team disperses for the holidays and while you still have time to address any gaps.
Cybercriminals are counting on you being too busy or too distracted to notice. Prove them wrong.
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