WH Memo Urges ‘Best Practices’ Against Holiday Cyberattacks

Cyber criminals customarily "infiltrate" a network before Christmas, then “lie in wait for the optimal time to launch an attack,” said a White House memo Thursday urging corporate executives and business leaders to protect against “malicious cyber activity” before the holidays. “It is therefore essential that you convene your leadership team now to make your organization a harder target for criminals,” it said. “Best practices” should be deployed immediately, including updating patching, changing passwords, mandating multifactor authentication and raising “employee awareness” of cyberthreats, it said. “Reinforce the imperative” among workers to report computers or phones “exhibiting any unusual behavior” to deny criminals “the initial entry into your systems that allows them to execute attacks over the holidays,” it said.