Key Points
After Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we enter the Christmas season with higher traffic, greater pressure, and increased exposure to incidents. During these weeks, a technical failure or a serious attack can impact sales, damage reputation, and break customer trust. In this context, learning about cybersecurity solutions is no longer just a technical issue—it becomes a business priority.
At RibéSalat, a broker specialising in cybersecurity insurance for businesses, we have compiled 10 key measures to help you finish the year with a much more secure environment.
10 digital security recommendations for the Christmas campaigns
1. Strictly control access to critical systems
The starting point is simple: know who’s accessing your systems, from where, and with what permissions. Multifactor authentication should be enabled on all sensitive accounts, but that alone is not enough. You should:
- Review old users or accounts that are no longer in use.
- Remove surplus permissions that could open unnecessary doors.
- Monitor accounts with elevated privileges particularly closely.
A single exposed credential or a misconfigured role can compromise the company’s entire digital security, which is why implementing robust cybersecurity solutions is essential, especially when sales are at their peak.
2. Protect teams against phishing and social engineering
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the volume of fake emails, deceptive SMS messages and messages imitating promotions, internal notices or urgent payment requests skyrockets. The goal is almost always the same: to obtain data, divert money or prepare an online fraud attempt. In this context, it is essential to:
- Clearly communicate which types of messages are suspicious.
- Emphasise that any change of bank account or financial instruction must always be verified through an alternative channel.
- Launch short, very focused training sessions on these seasonal threats.
This is one of the most effective cybersecurity solutions because it targets the most vulnerable link: people.
3. Test the performance of the website and the app before the traffic peak
At Christmas, the website and the app are the main gateway to the business. If they fail, the impact on revenue is immediate. It is essential to:
- Carry out load tests before the campaign.
- Monitor performance in real time.
- Verify that APIs and microservices respond reliably.
A failure in an integration can slow down the checkout process, break stock information or trigger massive abandonments during the purchase process.
4. Review payment gateways thoroughly
Payment gateways are under extraordinary pressure during December. Any error, outage or anomaly is immediately noticeable both in revenue and in customer trust. At this point, we recommend:
- Checking certificates, integrations and accepted payment methods.
- Detecting duplicated, failed or unusually high-value transactions.
- Analysing patterns that may indicate online fraud.
5. Ensure the stability of third-party integrations
Digital commerce depends on many external components: inventory, logistics, authentication, coupons, promotions, order tracking, etc. If one component fails at the peak of demand, the chain reaction is difficult to contain. Before entering the busiest phase of the campaign, you should:
- Validate that all integrations work as expected by the teams.
- Confirm that stock systems update correctly.
- Have contingency plans in place in case a vendor fails.
6. Activate and review continuity and communication plans
When an incident occurs at this time of year, response time makes all the difference: you need to know how to act from the first minute. It is essential to:
- Have a continuity plan that covers website outages, payment issues or system interruptions.
- Define in advance who is responsible for each decision.
- Have messages ready for customers, social media and internal channels.
Clear and rapid communication, supported by effective cybersecurity solutions, reduces reputational damage and conveys control, even in situations that are critical for the organisation’s digital security.
7. Boost anti-bot and anti-DDoS defences
An increase in legitimate traffic always comes with more malicious traffic. During these weeks, automated attacks intensify: they try to overload services, test credentials or carry out online fraud at scale. For this reason, it is essential to:
- Keep web application firewall rules up to date.
- Use bot-detection systems and limit anomalous patterns.
- Monitor overload attempts or suspicious traffic by country, IP or behaviour.
8. Protect personal data and limit information exposure
More sales mean more personal data at stake: names, addresses, phone numbers, purchase histories, login details… If these assets are not handled properly, the risk skyrockets. Your company should:
- Review who has access to which information.
- Avoid overly broad permissions or unnecessary sharing.
- Check that applicable data-protection regulations are being met.
- Minimise the information stored in non-critical external services.
Excessive exposure opens the door to data breaches and serious digital security incidents, but implementing effective cybersecurity solutions can help prevent fines, claims, and loss of trust.
9. Assess vendor security and the digital supply chain
If one of the vendors fails or suffers an incident, the impact is immediate, so it is essential to:
- Review service-level agreements (SLAs) and capacity during peak load.
- Check their incident reporting protocols.
- Confirm that backups are recent and can be restored without issues.
A critical vendor with poor digital security can become the source of a serious incident for your organisation, even if the attack does not target you directly, highlighting the need for robust cybersecurity solutions.
10. Adjust cyber-insurance coverage to the real level of risk
At a time when a large share of the annual result is decided in just a few weeks, any incident translates into measurable financial losses from the very first minute. Here, cyber-insurance stops being a complement and becomes a key risk-management tool. Before the campaign, you should:
- Verify that the policy covers business interruption due to cyberattacks and system failures.
- Confirm that it includes incidents originating from digital vendors.
- Ensure coverage for crisis management, reputation and protection against online fraud.
This Christmas, protect your digital security
The Christmas season brings the highest levels of traffic, the most critical operations and the most attack attempts of the entire year. A failure in access controls, a slow website, a poorly configured payment gateway or a simple phishing email that ends in online fraud can disrupt sales, trigger complaints and damage your brand at the very moment when the most revenue is at stake—making effective cybersecurity solutions essential.
To reach January with strong results and no crises, now is the time to review your controls, your vendors and your cyber-insurance coverage. At RibéSalat, we provide expert advice: we assess the risk, adjust the cover and design insurance and cyber-insurance solutions to provide your company with continuity, stability and real protection against incidents.
