The run-up to Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year for many people – unfortunately, it is for cybercriminals as well. While companies focus on closing the fiscal year and employees are busy with vacation planning and gift shopping, attackers prepare targeted campaigns.
The Christmas season is traditionally considered peak time for cybercriminals. Attackers exploit the year-end rush and seasonal communication patterns to launch highly convincing social engineering and phishing campaigns in B2B environments. Vacation-related absences, a surge in HR and financial communication, and an increased volume of parcel notifications create ideal conditions for attackers. The following five points highlight where the greatest risks lie and how companies can protect themselves effectively:
1. Define clear approval processes
During the holiday season, many employees are absent, which means responsibilities are handed over to substitutes and teams often work with reduced staffing. This can lead to disruptions or inconsistencies in internal communication and approval workflows. It creates a perfect environment for Business Email Compromise (BEC), also known as CEO fraud. Attackers impersonate supervisors, service providers, or finance departments and pressure recipients to quickly execute transfers or disclose sensitive data under false pretenses.
Tip: Define clear representation and approval rules that also apply during vacation periods. The four-eyes principle should be strictly enforced, even for seemingly urgent matters. Additionally, rely on advanced email security solutions with dedicated BEC protection features and phishing detection powered by AI algorithms that identify suspicious communication patterns.
2. Raise employee awareness of HR topics
Topics such as remaining vacation days, payroll statements, information on tax changes, or social security contributions increase around the turn of the year. According to Retarus, attackers frequently use exactly these themes as bait for targeted phishing attacks. Emails seemingly sent from the HR department that prompt users to click a link or open an attachment have especially high success rates during this period.
Tip: Educate your workforce that HR-related information will never require password entry or the unsolicited submission of personal documents. When in doubt, a quick call to the HR department provides clarity. From a technical standpoint, comprehensive phishing protection – including mechanisms such as time-of-click protection (URL rewriting) and AI components trained specifically to detect phishing patterns and analyze attachments such as forms – offers an additional safeguard.
3. Monitor gift, voucher, and parcel notifications
Whether internal gift initiatives, employee incentives, or private parcels delivered to the office – December sees a sharp rise in both legitimate and fraudulent messages about vouchers, shipments, or bonus promotions. Cybercriminals exploit this by hiding malicious links in fake shipping notifications or embedding fraudulent offers in emails that appear to contain vouchers.
Tip: Establish clear internal guidelines for how official gift or bonus programs are communicated. Advise employees to be highly cautious with suspicious parcel-tracking messages or voucher links, never click impulsively, and immediately report questionable emails to the IT department.
4. Establish anti-fraud mechanisms
At the end of the year, budget approvals, invoice processing, and project closures are in full swing, often coinciding with the end of the fiscal year. Cybercriminals deliberately take advantage of this stress to inject fake invoices, reminders, or payment requests into ongoing processes. A single careless click can lead to significant financial damage.
Tip: Implement robust anti-fraud mechanisms and automate invoice verification wherever possible. Modern email security platforms can analyze suspicious attachments in a sandbox environment to detect hidden malware before it ever reaches an employee’s inbox.
5. Use authentication
Not only internal teams but also suppliers and partners often operate with reduced staffing during the holiday season. This can lead to delayed responses and open the door for fraud attempts, such as attackers impersonating new or substitute contacts to request changes to bank account details for upcoming payments.
Tip: Consistently use domain authentication methods such as DMARC, DKIM, and SPF to verify the authenticity of inbound emails. Actively encourage your partners and suppliers to implement these standards as well. This strengthens security across the entire supply chain, especially during seasonal peak periods.
Conclusion: People and technology as the decisive line of defense
Cybercriminals do not take a Christmas break. They exploit reduced staffing levels and the flood of seasonal communication for their own purposes. To avoid falling victim to phishing attacks, companies must complement the human firewall with intelligent technical safeguards. When a security strategy incorporates both people and technology, it becomes far more effective and elevates protection to the next level
