For 141 years, Americans have gathered with friends, family, and neighbors on Labor Day, celebrating with parties, parades, and other recreational activities. Created to recognize the achievements of American workers, the holiday is generally celebrated by doing anything but work. Unless you’re a hacker.
Like most holidays, for hackers it’s a time to work overtime. A hacker’s job is to break into business networks and steal or destroy information. To be successful they must get in and get their work done without being noticed. If they’re spreading ransomware throughout the network that can be a long process. Hackers must move laterally through the network, gaining access to each computer before installing their software. If detected, a security team may disconnect computers and take other measures to block malicious activities. So it makes sense that the best time to do this is when no one is around. Weekends in general are most common for a ransomware attack. But a long weekend when everyone is mentally disengaged from work gives hackers better odds of success.
What you can do
Aside from all the things you should already be doing to avoid ransomware and other malicious threats, be aware that threats are greater on weekends, and especially long weekends. For enterprises with an in-house security team, ensure the employees that are working through the holiday weekend are mindful of the threats and know who to contact at the first sign of abnormal activity. Also ensure that necessary decision makers are accessible for emergencies and able to authorize appropriate measures.
For SMBs that don’t have a dedicated security team, consider outsourced Managed eXtended Detection and Response (MXDR) services. These services combine advanced threat detection technologies with human analysis to offer 24/7 threat identification and mitigation. With this service in place you can spend your Labor Day watching a parade, knowing a professional security team is watching your business.
