Reminder for Critical Infrastructure to Stay Vigilant Against Threats During Holidays and Weekends

As the holiday season approaches, many are focused on shopping, cooking, and visiting relatives – cybersecurity is often forgotten. Cybercriminals, however, are aware of and regularly leverage these distractions to conduct attacks while our minds are elsewhere. This year, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI are making sure stakeholders are aware of the potential risks going into the holiday season, in a newly released advisory. According to the alert, “recent history tells us that this could be a time when these persistent cyber actors halfway across the world are looking for ways—big and small—to disrupt the critical networks and systems belonging to organizations, businesses, and critical infrastructure.” CISA and the FBI urge critical infrastructure partners to assess their existing cybersecurity posture and implement best practices and mitigations. Specific actions organizations are encouraged to take include identifying IT personnel who would be available to respond to incidents during holidays, using multi-factor authentication, and mandating strong passwords, among others. Read more at CISA.