The holiday season puts extra pressure and volume on businesses, leading to spikes in website traffic. Mobile checkouts stay busy. Customer service teams work at full speed. Employees juggle increased work and personal obligations, which creates openings for cybercriminals. One breach can disrupt year-end revenue, making cybersecurity insurance for businesses essential.
Cybercriminals target businesses when they are busiest. Attackers watch for seasonal trends and strike when employees are most vulnerable, often during periods of distraction. Phishing, payment diversion, ransomware, and e-commerce fraud all spike in November and December. One survey found that 80% of retailers experienced a cyberattack in 2024, with almost all of them being hit multiple times. Small and midsize businesses face significant risk, as their teams are stretched thin and systems are under stress.
The Seasonal Spike in Cyber Threats
Q4 brings the highest volume for digital operations. Online orders surge. Remote access expands. Employees make faster decisions and skip necessary verifications.
Retailers and service providers experience the highest volume of cyberattacks during the holiday shopping season. Phishing and fraud attempts spike, especially for small and mid-sized businesses. Attackers need only one mistake. A single click on a fake notice or a fraudulent vendor update can cause major damage during peak season.
The Hidden Weak Points in Holiday Operations
Even well-run companies develop blind spots during the holiday rush. Temporary hires onboard quickly. IT teams delay updates to keep e-commerce running. Departments relax access controls to handle more volume. These changes create new vulnerabilities, and criminals watch for these openings.
Common holiday-season weaknesses include:
- Seasonal staffing gaps: New hires may not recognize phishing tactics or suspicious requests, leaving them vulnerable to scams.
- Unpatched software and plugins: Businesses delay updates, leaving known vulnerabilities exposed.
- Overloaded payment and inventory systems: High demand increases system stress and configuration errors.
- Vendor impersonation and invoice fraud: Criminals mimic genuine suppliers to reroute payments.
- Gift card and refund scams: Attackers exploit rushed approval processes.
- Business email compromise: Hackers infiltrate executive or finance accounts to divert funds silently.
Any one of these issues can halt online sales, expose customer data, or trigger costly downtime. Losing revenue during the most profitable weeks of the year can be devastating, and recovery often costs more than prevention.
Why Cyber Security Insurance Is a Business Essential
Strong cybersecurity lowers risk but does not remove it. Criminals adapt quickly. Even the best defenses can fail through social engineering, stolen credentials, or a single mistake.
A robust business insurance program includes cybersecurity insurance that protects your business when these gaps appear. Policies can cover:
- Data retrieval and system restoration
- Ransomware negotiation and payment support
- Legal and regulatory obligations
- Customer notification and credit monitoring
- Public relations and crisis communication
- Business interruption and lost revenue
Many business owners believe standard insurance covers cyber losses. Most policies do not. Cyber liability insurance fills many gaps. Digital threats bring financial and legal risks that traditional policies cannot address.
Consider a small e-commerce retailer hit with ransomware before dawn on Cyber Monday. Their website froze. Orders vanished. Customers turned to competitors within hours. Their cyber policy provided immediate technical response, data restoration, and compensation for lost income. They reopened within days instead of weeks — an outcome made possible by planning, not luck.
Brooks, Todd & McNeil helps companies choose the right coverage for their size, systems, and risk. Our cyber insurance expertise guides businesses to protect their digital operations.
Building a Resilient Cyber Defense Before the Rush
Businesses can reduce exposure by preparing before the holidays begin. A proactive strategy should include:
- Employee training refreshers, including seasonal hires
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all systems and platforms
- Verified payment-charge procedures, with secondary confirmation
- Routine backups and tested restoration processes
- Access restrictions based on role and necessity
- Timely software, server, and plugin updates
- Increased monitoring during peak volume periods
Cyber insurance supports these steps. It does not replace them. Brooks, Todd & McNeil helps businesses identify vulnerabilities, refine policies, and ensure that coverage aligns with actual digital risk. Annual reviews are essential, especially before the end of the fourth quarter.
Secure Your Business Year-Round
Holiday cyber threats rise for clear reasons: increased activity, higher pressure, more distractions, and greater opportunities for attackers. With the right preparation and a firm cyber liability policy, businesses can protect their revenue, operations, and customer trust throughout the year.
Brooks, Todd & McNeil provides guidance to ensure your coverage matches the realities of modern digital risk — during the holidays and throughout the year. Contact Brooks, Todd & McNeil today to discuss cyber security insurance for businesses and protect your company’s digital operations long after the holiday season ends.
About Brooks, Todd & McNeil
Since 1839, the independent agents at Brooks, Todd & McNeil have been pleased to offer our community several different kinds of policies from a variety of providers. To learn more about our products and services, contact us today at (800) 448-4567.