Make Your Network Holiday-Ready
The holiday stretch is when offices empty out and attackers get busy. Fewer eyes on screens means a phishing email or an unpatched machine can sit undetected for days. A little preparation now keeps your systems quiet and secure while your team takes a well-earned break.
The good news is that holiday readiness is mostly about closing known gaps before they matter. The same fundamentals that protect you year-round just need a quick review before the office goes quiet.
A Few Things Worth Checking
- Confirm email security is active. Phishing and spam attempts tend to spike when people are rushing before time off. Make sure your phishing and spam filtering is turned on and current, so suspicious messages are caught before they reach an inbox.
- Confirm multi-factor authentication (MFA) is on. If email or remote access can be reached with just a password, an idle holiday week is exactly when that gets tested.
- Retire devices that no longer receive updates. Any machine running software that no longer receives security updates can create real risk, since known gaps stay open. It is worth retiring or replacing before the break.
- Check where your alerts go. Confirm your alerting is configured and current, so any notifications route to the right person while the office is quiet.
- Set expectations for your team. A short reminder to slow down on unexpected emails and invoices goes a long way, since scams tend to spike when people are rushing before time off.
If you use a cloud-based phone system, it is also worth a quick check that call routing and voicemail-to-email are set so customer calls do not get lost over the break.
None of this takes long, but it is far easier to handle a quick review now than to untangle a problem on the first day back. If you would like a second set of eyes on your setup before the holidays, reply to this email and we will walk you through a quick check.