The holidays: the most wonderful time of the year- or is it? Despite its reputation for being the season of giving, Christmas is often a time of robbing, swindling, and you guessed it- hacking.
Studies show that people are over 20% more likely to suffer a cyberattack during the holiday season than any other time of year. So, why is business so booming for hackers around the holiday season? Take a look at why hackers hack.
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Fewer Employees On Deck
Not only individual consumers are at risk of being hacked. Hackers also love to target retail stores, which are often more vulnerable during the Christmas season. Why, you ask? Because during the months of November and December, a large percentage of employees use their vacation time to visit family. As a result, hackers know that there are fewer hands on deck, and fewer people are guarding their posts.
Apart from retail, offices can also be attacked. Since hackers know that employees often work remotely on holidays and may be using a public wifi connection, they target when they know they’re most likely to get in easiest.
Piles Of Emails
Businesses have one goal during the holidays: push sales to consumers. They have all sorts of marketing campaigns and sales to attempt to grab customers’ attention. It’s also a busy time of year in your inbox for Christmas cards, party invitations, shipping notifications, and sales receipts.
As a result, as many as hundreds of emails can coming into your inbox in a single day. As your emails pile up, you may be less wary of suspicious links that could contain malicious content. Scammers know that you’re less likely to have your guard up with so many incoming emails. Therefore, busy inboxes are likely to get targeted and used to their advantage.
More Online Shopping
Why bother with holiday parking and busy lines when you can order everything online? Not only can you avoid crowds and busy roads, but you can also usually find cheaper deals online.
Hackers know that you’re likely doing most of your shopping online and will dangle dangerous links in places you might not expect.
People Are Eager For A Deal
Be careful for “hot deals” and prices that seem too good to be true. All it takes is one wrong click to infect your entire computer. Be careful to keep your security software up to speed so that you receive a warning when you start to navigate towards a malicious site.
It’s not uncommon for hackers to lure you in with a great price that leaves you feeling like you’ve won the lottery, when in fact, you’re far from it.
