Preparation of cyber officials and incident response units gears up in anticipation of the Memorial Day weekend
Headline: Holiday Weekends Pose Increased Cybersecurity Risks for Organizations
The healthcare industry has recently experienced two significant ransomware incidents, underscoring the heightened cybersecurity risks that organizations face during holiday weekends. These periods, characterized by reduced staffing and decreased vigilance, provide an attractive window for cyber attackers.
According to a 2023 report from Sophos, approximately 90% of ransomware attacks occur outside of normal work hours. This trend is not lost on attackers, who are aware of holidays and reduced staffing levels. Scott Algeier, executive director of the IT-ISAC, has stated that attackers may take advantage of such opportunities.
To mitigate these risks, organizations should implement comprehensive, proactive defense and detection strategies. This includes maintaining proactive monitoring and threat detection capabilities even during holidays, strengthening access controls, and ensuring cybersecurity teams remain staffed or on-call.
Organizations should also protect critical business applications, such as SAP systems, with specific security hardening, regular vulnerability assessments, and close monitoring. These systems often contain the organization’s most sensitive data and processes.
Employee awareness is also crucial. Organizations should increase awareness about phishing, social engineering, and other attack vectors before holiday breaks to reduce human errors that attackers commonly exploit.
Incident response teams should have alerts set up and be prepared to return to the office in case of an attack. Every organization should be preparing and monitoring for increased abnormalities leading up to and during holiday weekends.
The security landscape remains focused on nation-state threats to critical infrastructure. Ongoing threat activity linked to Volt Typhoon, a hacking group linked to the People's Republic of China, is a concern for many. Researchers at GreyNoise Labs are bracing for potential vulnerability drops during holiday weekends, as they have observed this happening during past events.
The state-linked compromise of Microsoft Exchange Online, which led to the theft of 60,000 State Department emails, is a reminder of the potential damage that can be caused during out-of-hours periods.
In summary, the holiday weekend environment presents an attractive window for cyber attackers. Organizations must be vigilant and prepared to protect themselves during these vulnerable times.
- The healthcare industry's recent ransomware incidents emphasize the increased cybersecurity risks that organizations encounter during holiday weekends, a period often characterized by reduced staffing and decreased vigilance.
- According to a 2023 report from Sophos, around 90% of ransomware attacks occur outside of normal work hours, making them attractive targets for cyber attackers who are aware of holidays and reduced staffing levels.
- To mitigate these risks, organizations should implement cybersecurity strategies that include maintaining proactive monitoring and threat detection capabilities even during holidays, strengthening access controls, and ensuring cybersecurity teams remain staffed or on-call.
- Organizations should also protect critical business applications with specific security hardening, regular vulnerability assessments, and close monitoring, as these systems often contain the organization’s most sensitive data and processes.
- Employee awareness is key. Organizations should increase awareness about phishing, social engineering, and other attack vectors before holiday breaks to reduce human errors that attackers commonly exploit, while incident response teams should have alerts set up and be prepared to return to the office in case of an attack.
