Christmas Cybercrime: How Hackers Target Small Businesses in December

Cybercrime Is Rising — Here’s How It Hits Small Businesses

Christmas cybercrime grows every year, and hackers know exactly when to strike: right when businesses are distracted by sales, staffing shortages, heavy travel, and a surge in online activity. Christmas cybercrime increases because holiday traffic creates the perfect cover for malicious activity. During December, networks see more logins, more email volume, and more website traffic, which makes harmful activity blend in with the noise.

Even worse, cybercriminals target small businesses specifically, because they assume small teams won’t notice unusual behavior until it’s too late. That assumption is often correct, unless the business has layered security and 24/7 monitoring in place.

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Below are the top five most popular holiday-season cyberattacks, how they work, and how small businesses can stay safe.

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1. Phishing & Email Spoofing Surge During Holiday Sales

Phishing attacks always increase in December. Hackers send fake invoices, shipping notices, donation requests, and HR updates, all designed to look legitimate. Heavy seasonal inbox traffic helps disguise malicious emails, and employees tend to skim messages faster during busy year-end operations.

Why it works in December:
Online orders, vendor notices, and customer support emails spike dramatically. Attackers use that chaos to slip poisoned links and attachments into your inbox.

Protect Your Business:

• Use Enterprise Password Management by STS to eliminate reused or weak passwords across all staff accounts.
• Enable MFA everywhere, especially for email and admin accounts.
• Deploy email filtering and antivirus scanning to block malicious attachments before they hit inboxes.

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2. Credential Stuffing & Password Attacks

Hackers rely on the fact that employees reuse passwords across personal and business accounts. December brings major retail breaches each year, which means compromised consumer credentials quickly turn into business attacks within hours.

Why it works in December:
Gift shopping leads employees to log in from work devices or business networks. If their credentials were leaked, attackers can immediately try the same passwords on business portals.

Protect Your Business:

• Implement STS Cyber Essentials with Enterprise Password Manager, which enforces unique passwords and detects compromised credentials.
• Require passkeys or MFA for sensitive applications.
• Run a holiday credential audit to see which logins need strengthening.

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3. Ransomware Hidden in Holiday Traffic

Ransomware gangs choose December because outages are extra painful during the revenue-heavy Christmas rush, making companies more likely to pay. Attackers often spend weeks inside a network before deploying the final attack, blending their data movements into the influx of legitimate traffic.

Why it works in December:
Massive online shopping activity and year-end operations generate high data flow. Suspicious traffic is harder to spot without 24/7 monitoring.

Protect Your Business:

• Use STS Monitored IT for real-time threat detection and automated alerts.
• Deploy enterprise-grade antivirus (By SofTouch) to detect malware early.
• Maintain verified off-site backups to restore operations without paying ransom.

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4. Fake Charity Scams & Social Engineering

Hackers exploit the generosity of the season. They impersonate local charities, employees, or vendors asking for holiday donations, wire transfers, gift card purchases, or invoice changes.

Why it works in December:
Staff are busy, distracted, and often working remotely. Finance teams handle extra invoices and year-end reconciliations. Attackers use timing to rush people into making mistakes.

Protect Your Business:

• Train employees with short monthly security reminders (STS Cyber Essentials includes this).
• Create a “financial change” verification rule, requiring verbal confirmation from vendors before updating bank info.
• Use Enterprise Password Manageer by SofTouch for secure sharing of financial logins or vendor accounts.

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5. E-Commerce Skimming & Website Injection

Businesses with online stores or payment portals face increased risk of card skimmers, malicious plugins, and script injections. Attackers target smaller businesses because their sites often lack enterprise-grade monitoring.

Why it works in December:
Online sales drive traffic spikes, and malicious scripts disappear into the crowd. Many businesses also pause development updates in December, leaving vulnerabilities untouched.

Protect Your Business:

• Enable STS website and network monitoring to detect strange behavior instantly.
• Audit your plugins and themes before the holiday rush.
• Use managed backups to restore your site fast if compromised.

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Why December Makes Cybercrime Harder to Detect

Holiday operations create a perfect storm:

• More logins = suspicious attempts blend into normal patterns
• More emails = malicious messages go unnoticed
• More customer traffic = injected scripts hide in plain sight
• More remote work = more unsecured devices
• More stress & distraction = humans make faster decisions with less scrutiny

Hackers count on this chaos. That’s why they hit in December and why small businesses need layered protection long before Christmas week arrives.

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How STS Protects Texas Small Businesses All Season Long

At SofTouch Systems, we help Central & South Texas businesses stay secure all year, especially during high-risk seasons. Our No-Surprise IT promise gives your business predictable protection with enterprise-grade tools and Texas-friendly support.

STS Solutions to Stop Christmas Cybercrime:

• Monitored IT: 24/7 network monitoring + Bitdefender antivirus
• Cyber Essentials: EPM onboarding, MFA enforcement, password audits
• Managed Backups: Nightly verification and off-site protection
• Help Desk & Incident Response: Fast support when something looks off
• Security Training: Short lessons that prevent costly mistakes

When attackers try to blend into holiday traffic, STS separates the noise from the threats, and keeps your business running.

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In IT, Proactivity is Cheaper than Procrastination

Don’t let Christmas cybercrime disrupt your business.
Schedule your Free 15-Minute IT Audit today and see how you stack up against the most common holiday threats.

softouchsystems.com | “No-Surprise IT” for Texas Businesses