December 20, 2023 | Blog

Christmas is around the corner. Everyone is excited to enjoy the holiday season. But before we relax and get into the holiday spirit, the safety and security of your organization’s network must come first because, as you know, cyber attacks take no holiday off. But why is cybersecurity so important?

What is Cybersecurity?

According to Forbes, cybersecurity is the practice of protecting networks, data (private and sensitive), and devices from hackers and cybercrime by taking precautions. 

In 2021, CBS News interviewed Cybereason CEO Lior Diev about his insights as businesses feared cyberattacks during the holiday season. “Hackers love to hack when they know we’re distracted and not ready to respond,” he said. 

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has revealed that the government and companies have reached over 3,000 cyberattacks from 2020 to 2022.

Moreover, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) also reported that the country ranked with the highest shopping scam rate in Asia, beating 11 economies in the region with 35.9 percent. The DICT, however, remains optimistic as it continues to invest in its workforce to have cybersecurity skills.

ManageEngine, ITG’s trusted and certified solution partner, shares how to combat cyberattacks while celebrating the holiday season to the fullest, sharing the best practices to empower your cybersecurity plan. 

1. Setup early threat detection systems
(The Gift of Prevention)

Christmas is often associated with the winter season, where nights are longer and days are shorter, preventing Earth from warming up, which gives most viruses a chance to thrive. Thus, seasonal flu-like common colds are rampant everywhere. The same goes for cyberhackers, who thrive better in the season when organizations are too focused on holidays, leaving them exposed to cyber threats.

According to ManageEngine, “preventing a threat is better than having to find its cure”. The best prevention of any threat is early detection. It means the earlier you can detect abnormal, anomalous, and malicious behavioral patterns in your system, the earlier you can stop incoming threats before they infect your network. To triple your wall of protection, implement a User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) that is useful for thwarting insider attacks and will inform users instantly, add intrusion detection systems to flag malicious networks, plus Antivirus software to serve as the frontline of your defense. 

2. Monitor high-level access to critical resources
(The Gift of Privileged Access)

Gift-giving during Christmas is a privilege we often take for granted somehow. Meanwhile, in cybersecurity, access to your precious and critical resources is a gift given only to those qualified people who went under proper verification and authentication. Access to your resources should be limited and related to their respective roles, preventing insider threats from exploiting your sensitive resources.

3. Configure automated incident response
(The Gift of  Holiday Preparedness)

In the spirit of the holiday season, everyone, if not all, is already seeking quality time with their loved ones, and work is put aside for a while. The key to a successful Christmas get-together is planning ahead of time, especially the backup plans. 

To be holiday-prepared, your organization must set up an incident response plan. So, whenever a threat is discovered, your automated security response plan can help you contain it and block it from infecting the entire network. With proactive measures, organizations can fortify their defenses against potential threats, ensuring a rapid and automated response that minimizes the impact of security threats.

4. Implement Endpoint Threat Detection
(The Gift of Boundaries)

Everyone wants to feel safe and secure, whether you’re celebrating alone this Christmas or with friends and family at home. In the digital space, cyber attacks happen when we least expect them, and that’s why endpoint security is a crucial element of any cybersecurity plan. It helps to protect your endpoint devices, like servers, laptops, and desktops, as well as your cloud resources.

5. Have effective correlation rules in place
(The Gift of Genuine Connection)

The best gift we can have this holiday season is a genuine connection to those people we love. But unlike genuine relationships we often build and welcome, in the digital world, connection should always be secure and safe. With connection and correlation rules, you’ll identify security incidents across your network, and establish a pattern between them because round-the-clock network monitoring might still generate irrelevant logs.

Your organization can build customized correlation rules that are fit and tailored to your business needs and your security risk strategy.

6. Use multi-factor authentication for users in your domain
(The Gift of Protection)

When the holiday shopping season begins, cyber attack becomes an all-time high, too. Email phishing, data breaching, identity theft, malware, ransomware, and insider threats are rampant because many individuals and companies are exposed due to panic buying of gifts, food, and other commodities related to Christmas and its long celebration. With the overwhelming demands to keep up with consumers, clients, and customers— businesses, companies, and organizations are also highly prone to cyber attacks as they, too, experience vulnerabilities with their processes.

The best way to solve this dilemma is the gift of protection. ManageEngine highlighted that with the sophisticated password-cracking software available, it’s easy for hackers to obtain a password, advising everyone, especially enterprises, to have more than one way of authenticating users into your domain. “Authentication through alternative modes makes it difficult for threat actors to impersonate your identity. Multi-factor authentications are part of many compliance laws, so that is another item checked off your compliance checklist,” they said. 

Let’s Venture into Cybersecurity Solutions Together

ManageEngine is one of the technology partners of IT Group, Inc., focusing on IT Management Solutions. We can combat cyber attacks together, especially with key solutions that we offer such as Identity & Access Management (IAM), Unified-Endpoint Management System (UEMS), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), and Network Security Solution (NSS). The seasons may change, and threats may constantly appear, but one thing is for sure—your cybersecurity strategies plan will evolve with the right partners like us. 

Give yourself the gift of the right partners to venture together!