Dec. 28– Over the Christmas holiday weekend, the digital photography site known as Shutterstock reported a cyber security incident to the public. According to experts, the attack took place several weeks before, and a combination of law enforcement and cyber security teams are working to address the issue.

Holiday havoc

Christmas is often considered a peak time for hackers to launch cyber attacks. Authorities across the US, Europe and elsewhere told organizations to expect ransomware attacks and other cyber attacks during the holiday, and encouraged organizations to take precautions.

However, despite the warnings concerning potential cyber attacks -or perhaps because of them- few organizations actually reported attacks. Horrific headlines did not grace the tops of well-known journalistic outfits, and the worst of expectations did not come to pass.

Unwanted gifts

Experts continue to warn organizations about the potential for cyber attacks timed for the New Years holiday. Highly impactful ransomware attacks commonly occur on holidays and weekends, and at other times when offices are closed.

Organizations should be sure to engage in preemptive threat hunting on networks, utilize vulnerability scanning and ransomware readiness assessments, update software, secure networks, filter traffic, scan ports, make offline backups of data, ensure that employees receive adequate awareness training, maintain an incident response plan and generally adhere to cyber security best practices.

Lastly, to learn more about managing cyber risk in a changing world, please join us at the premiere cyber security event of the year – CPX 360 2022. Register here.