Holiday cyberthreats unwrapped: Common attacks and how to prevent them

With the holiday season in full swing, employees are rushing to clear their inboxes, finalize year-end projects and prepare for some well-earned time off. However, if you think cybercriminals are also planning to clock out for the holidays, think again.

The holiday season is one of the busiest times of year for threat actors. With IT teams running lean, attackers see this period as a golden opportunity. In fact, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) regularly sees a spike in cybercrime reports in the early months of each year — a clear sign that many of these attacks are taking place during the holiday season.

In this blog, we’ll explore the most common cyberthreats businesses face during the holidays and how IT teams and MSPs can stay ahead of them. From phishing scams to ransomware attacks, we’ll break down what to watch for and how to build stronger defenses when your team needs it most.

The naughty list: Common cyberthreats businesses face during the holidays

With year-end deadlines, vacation planning and an influx of personal emails, users are more distracted than usual during the holiday season. It’s this distraction that gives cybercriminals their opening. Attackers count on reduced attention spans, hurried clicks and relaxed security habits to slip past defenses unnoticed.

There are four specific threats that consistently rise during this holiday period.

Phishing

Phishing attacks surge during the holiday season, as it‘s the perfect time to exploit human behavior. With inboxes flooded with promotional emails, order confirmations and shipping notifications, employees are more likely to fall for fake messages.

Cybercriminals now utilize advanced tools, including generative AI (GenAI), to craft phishing emails that closely resemble legitimate correspondence. These messages are polished, accurate and personalized, making them harder for users to spot. According to a recent study, AI-automated attacks achieved a 54% click-through rate, outperforming arbitrary phishing emails by 350%.

Some of the most common holiday‑themed phishing scams include:

• Fake order receipts: Emails that appear to confirm purchases the user never made, prompting them to click a malicious link to “review” or “cancel” the order.
• Spoofed shipping notifications: Messages pretending to be from known carriers like UPS or FedEx, with links to fake tracking pages that harvest credentials.
• Falsified charitable donation requests: Impersonating trusted nonprofit organizations, scammers exploit seasonal generosity to trick users into donating via malicious websites.
• Fake gift card alerts: Emails claiming a user has received a holiday gift card, with links that download malware or redirect to credential-harvesting pages.

These emails often use urgency and festive language to entice users into clicking before they have a chance to consider their actions. Once a link is clicked or a file is downloaded, attackers may gain access to internal systems, steal sensitive data or install malware.

Ransomware

Ransomware attacks are calculated, methodical and increasingly common during the holiday season. Cybercriminals know that stretched IT teams and slower response times provide the perfect opportunity to strike.

A typical ransomware attack starts with access gained through a successful phishing attempt, compromised credentials or unpatched vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems. Once inside, attackers quietly escalate privileges, move laterally across the network and identify the most critical assets. Only after this silent reconnaissance phase do they launch the ransomware payload, encrypting files and systems to disrupt operations and force a payout.

What makes ransomware especially dangerous during the holidays is the timing. Many attackers intentionally schedule their attacks late on a Friday afternoon or just before a long weekend. This delay isn’t random. It’s often built into the malware itself, through time bombs or delayed execution commands designed to go off when no one is watching.

With fewer staff available during weekends or holidays, even a short delay in detecting the attack can give threat actors a significant advantage. A ransomware payload triggered late on a Friday could quickly spread before it’s contained, simply because fewer eyes are monitoring alerts and fewer hands are available to respond. By the time action is taken, key systems may already be encrypted, disrupting operations and escalating the damage.

The result? Extended costly downtime, loss of customer trust and a scramble to regain control — all at a time when staffing is light, and pressure is high.

Business email compromise (BEC)

While ransomware draws attention, business email compromise (BEC) is an equally serious, overlooked financial threat.

BEC attacks rely on social engineering rather than malware. Cybercriminals compromise or spoof legitimate business email accounts to impersonate executives, finance officers or vendors. They then send convincing emails to employees requesting wire transfers, invoice payments or access to sensitive information.

During the holidays, BEC scams increase for several reasons:

• Employees are more distracted and less likely to verify suspicious requests.
• Executives may be on vacation, making it easier for attackers to impersonate them without being questioned.
• Finance teams may be processing year-end transactions, creating more opportunities for fraudulent payments to go unnoticed.

A single successful BEC attack can result in significant financial loss and damage to business relationships. Attackers often research their targets carefully, understanding internal hierarchies and communication styles to make their requests look legitimate.

Credential stuffing

The holiday season also sees a rise in credential stuffing — a type of brute-force attack where cybercriminals use stolen username and password combinations to gain unauthorized access to accounts.

With many people shopping online, logging into holiday-related services or using personal devices for work, there’s an increased risk of credentials being reused across multiple platforms. If an attacker obtains one set of login credentials — say, from a data breach on a retail site — they may attempt to use it across various business applications, cloud platforms or virtual private networks (VPNs).

Here’s how credential stuffing typically works:

• Attackers acquire usernames and passwords from previous data breaches or leaks.
• They use automated tools to try these credentials across various login portals.
• If the same credentials are used elsewhere, attackers gain access without triggering traditional intrusion alerts.

During the holidays, employees may be more likely to use personal devices, access work apps remotely or log in from unsecured networks — all of which increase the chances of a successful credential stuffing attack.

To make matters worse, attackers often remain undetected for weeks or months, quietly harvesting data or preparing for more damaging attacks.

The nice list: A holiday cybersecurity checklist for businesses

Cyberattacks may spike during the holiday season, but with the right precautions, businesses can stay secure. Here’s a practical checklist IT teams and MSPs can use to mitigate holiday-season cyber-risks and keep their organizations protected.

1)    Train employees to spot seasonal threats.

Human error remains one of the primary enablers of cyberattacks, particularly during busy, high-volume periods such as the holidays. Employees juggling deadlines and seasonal distractions are more likely to click on a fake order confirmation or reply to a spoofed internal email.

Security awareness training tailored for the holiday period can help employees:

• Spot suspicious email subject lines and sender inconsistencies.
• Verify unexpected requests for credentials, payments or file downloads.
• Understand the signs of social engineering and impersonation attempts.
• Recognize threats that use seasonal hooks, such as fake tracking links or donation scams.

Interactive phishing simulations can reinforce training and help reduce risky behavior. When employees know what to look for, they become an effective first line of defense.

2)    Strengthen access controls with RBAC and MFA.

Not every employee needs access to every system, especially during the holidays.

Role-based access control (RBAC) limits access to what each user needs, reducing the attack surface and restricting lateral movement. Pairing RBAC with multifactor authentication (MFA) adds another critical layer. With MFA, even if a password is stolen or reused, an attacker can’t access the account without a second verification step — like a mobile push or token.

Together, these controls:

• Minimize insider risk and accidental exposure.
• Limit lateral movement in the event of a breach.
• Block unauthorized access through compromised credentials.

These protections are especially valuable when your team is distributed or working remotely.

3)    Monitor systems continuously, even during off-hours.

Cybercriminals thrive when no one’s watching. That’s why continuous monitoring and alerting are essential, especially when fewer team members are on call.

Use automated tools and monitoring systems to:

• Detect anomalous activity, such as unusual login times or access attempts.
• Alert your team to signs of malware, phishing or credential-based attacks.
• Provide real-time visibility into endpoints, networks and cloud environments.

If in-house teams can’t maintain 24/7 coverage, consider working with an MSP partner who can.

The goal is to respond to threats immediately — not after the damage is done.

4)    Patch systems and lock down exposed entry points.

Unpatched vulnerabilities are one of the most common ways attackers gain access — and during the holidays, businesses are less likely to stay on top of routine updates.

Before the holidays, make sure to:

• Apply the latest patches and security updates to all operating systems, software and firmware.
• Lock down unused Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) ports and other external-facing services.
• Disable accounts and access for users who are no longer in need of them.

This step isn’t just about compliance — it’s about eliminating easy wins for attackers who actively scan for weak points.

5)    Have a robust business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) strategy in place.

Even with the best defenses, no IT environment is immune to risk. That’s why a clear, tested business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) strategy is a critical part of your IT security.

BCDR planning ensures your organization can quickly recover and resume operations in the event of an incident, whether it’s ransomware, system failure or human error.

A strong BCDR plan should include:

• Verified, regularly tested backups stored securely off-site or in the cloud.
• Flexible recovery options to recover data the way you need.
• Clear response protocols and escalation paths.
• Defined roles and responsibilities for both in-house and partner response teams.
• Recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) that align with your business needs.

By putting these pieces in place before the holidays, you reduce the risk of costly data loss and prolonged downtime, ensuring your business or that of your clients remains resilient regardless of when an attack occurs.

Stay ready, no matter the season

When threats strike, every second counts. A modern BCDR solution can alleviate pressure on IT teams and MSPs by automating backup and recovery processes, enabling businesses to continue operations and recover quickly from even major disruptions.

Datto BCDR is purpose-built to deliver true resilience with features like:

• Instant virtualization to get systems back up and running in minutes.
• Screenshot and application verification to ensure backups are always boot-ready.
• Built-in ransomware resilience to detect and isolate suspicious activity.
• Flexible recovery options to adapt to any situation, from file-level to full-system restore.

Datto helps businesses minimize downtime, recover faster and maintain confidence — even when the unexpected hits.

Discover the comprehensive capabilities of Datto BCDR and learn how it can safeguard businesses this holiday season and beyond.