Every year, consumers eagerly await major dates for the sale of products or services: Black Friday and Cyber Monday . Furthermore, cybercriminals also eagerly await holidays or major promotions to carry out various types of digital scams, posing threats to your company's data security.
In 2019, Black Friday is scheduled for November 29th and Cyber Monday for December 2nd. Therefore, it's no surprise that many employees use the corporate environment for shopping and other activities unrelated to their job duties.
Therefore, in this article we discuss Black Friday and Cyber Monday. See how these dates can harm your company, decreasing employee productivity and putting your company's data and security at risk; check out tips for managing these issues.
What is Black Friday?
The name, which in Portuguese means "Black Friday ," was a term coined by retailers in the United States to name the annual sales event that takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States.
The idea has been adopted by other countries such as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Paraguay, and Brazil (since 2010). On this date, many physical and especially online stores join the movement and lower the prices of their products, aiming to guarantee more profits, boost consumer activity and sales, and generate customer loyalty.
However, even though this date is very special for companies and consumers, it also brings numerous problems, ranging from security issues at the company to difficulties in maintaining high employee productivity. It is known that on dates like this, they tend to browse websites, social media , and even online stores and prices of products they are interested in.
What is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday, literally translated, means "cybernetic Monday." This term was coined in 2005 to further boost online sales at the end of the year. The promotion takes place in November on the first Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States.
Cyber Monday has been held in Brazil since 2012, with the participation of many online stores offering large discounts on purchases made over the internet.
Promotional Dates vs. Productivity
Black Friday and Cyber Monday can harm your employees' productivity in various ways, mainly through wasted time researching products online, as well as when making online purchases.
To prevent personal purchases from being made during work hours, it is ideal to talk to employees in the days leading up to these dates, explaining that the workplace is not the appropriate place for this type of activity. A document outlining the company's internet usage policy , demonstrating that employees are aware of the rules for using the internet and ensuring the proper use of technology resources.
If you don't mind allowing your employees time to access discounts, one idea is to use an internet access management system with time-based releases, which allows for a balance between blocking and allowing internet access . For example, using such a system you can allow access to shopping websites during the lunch break and automatically block access to sites of this category at 1:30 PM.
How to maintain security?
For managers, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are major concerns. Amidst all the anxiety generated by these dates, employees tend to use corporate networks to make purchases without worrying about security .
On the other hand, hackers and criminal groups know that this is a great opportunity for attacks, because attracted by the promotions , users end up creating new security vulnerabilities.
Among the data stored on servers and transmitted through corporate networks, everything needs to be secure, and this protection can be threatened by a simple corrupted link, a malicious URL, or even traps on fake offer pages.
Therefore, being aware of the security measures that are used and which ones should be implemented is fundamental to avoiding problems and protecting your company against virtual threats during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Here are some security tips to avoid cyberattacks on Black Friday and Cyber Monday:
Be careful with emails:
During the days leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions advise employees that the volume of spam sent to emails increases significantly, potentially even overloading the email server. A large portion of these emails are advertisements, but they may contain files or attachments with malware and malicious content. If an employee clicks on or opens them, it could cause serious data security problems for the company.
Keep your antivirus software updated and use a firewall
When properly updated, antivirus software can protect against many attacks, which is why it's so important to keep it up-to-date. Furthermore, employees need to know that the antivirus software should not be disconnected, as doing so leaves the computer vulnerable to attacks.
Utilize firewall protection at the border with other untrusted networks, as this is a security feature that controls the flow of data on the network.
Guide your employees:
Nothing beats good internal communication between you and your employees. It's very important to inform all members of your team about this event and the potential for attacks, including making it clear how high the rate of hacker attacks is during this period, potentially increasing by up to 30% .
It is known that hackers tend to take advantage of dates like Black Friday and Cyber Monday to carry out different cyberattacks, as there is a significant increase in online shopping at these times, making it a favorable environment for scams to flourish.
Furthermore, when a company lacks a competent malware blocking solution to proactively monitor these attacks, intrusions are usually only identified long after the damage has already occurred and become incalculable .
Therefore, be vigilant and guide your employees to avoid accessing "tempting promotions" during work hours and to be careful even when at home and making purchases, so that they do not suffer any type of attack, scam, or theft of personal and corporate data.
Use Lumiun to manage and control internet access:
The advantages of an internet management system like Lumiun are numerous and go beyond the ease of implementing access rules and managing team productivity. Security and protection against internet threats are relevant factors, as they focus on reducing the risk of data loss, preventing access to harmful websites, and addressing problems with virus infections, resulting in savings on equipment maintenance costs.
Lumiun is easy to install, doesn't require large servers, and can be managed conveniently through a control panel, meaning no advanced technical knowledge is needed to implement and use the solution.
Discover the benefits Lumiun can offer your company, contact us and schedule a system demonstration!
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