Cyber Monday and Workplace Impact

Cyber Monday is expected to be the most lucrative online shopping day of the year according to usatoday.com. With millions of employees expected to take advantage of Cyber Monday deals during office hours while using company equipment, now is the time to be more cautious than ever to ensure the safety of your network’s infrastructure.

As employees are connected to the web looking for deals in their email inboxes or even on social media, cyber criminals are on the prowl to target unsuspecting victims and vulnerable systems. Hence, we need to establish good cybersecurity practices in the workplace to prevent breaches. According to Homeland Security: “Cybersecurity is designed to mitigate losses from a variety of cyber incidents, including data breaches, business interruptions, and network damages.”

The temptation to shop online on Cyber Monday could expose a company to spam emails and phishing attacks on the network. If you or your employees can not resist a good bargain during office hours, here are some proactive steps to prevent your company from falling victim to cyber threats:

• Encourage your employees to be cyber-aware in the workplace
• Avoid opening emails from unknown sources as they could contain spam or phishing attacks
• If you do open an email from an unknown source, avoid clicking suspicious links embedded in the body of the email
• Watch out for abnormal URLs and make sure the website is using HTTPS in the URL
• Connect directly to sites through your browser instead of clicking on links in email
• Safeguard your systems by installing the most recent anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-malware, and firewall programs

IT services integrator SDI provides assistance in developing a strong cybersecurity posture and incident response plan for our clients to help address intrusions before they happen. With over 20 years of collective experience in security-sensitive critical infrastructure environments, SDI leads a team of highly-credentialed security and IT professionals to comprehensively address the security of cyber assets throughout an organization to effectively reduce risk and ensure compliance. To learn more about our managed security programs (MSP), visit us at www.sdipresence.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram at SDI Presence and Twitter using @sdipresence.