Holiday Season Attacks Expected to Increase by 60%

'Tis the season for cyber-scams, according to the new Holiday Threat Report from Carbon Black. The report compared cyber-attack data over the last two years and found that once cyber-attacks spike on Cyber Monday, they will likely remain elevated throughout the holiday season. The holiday season of 2016 saw a 20.5% surge in attempted attacks, but by 2017 global organizations encountered a 57.5% increase in attempted attacks during the holiday shopping season, with the greatest number of attempts happening in the days following Christmas, according to the research. “The majority of these attempted holiday-related cyberattacks were the result of commodity malware, commonly delivered through spear-phishing campaigns. In recent years, attacks targeting major retailers (often through supply chain partners) have resulted in the loss of millions of customer records and credit card numbers as well as major breach costs for the targeted organizations,” the report stated.