According to a study conducted by LastLine ,there are a number of factors that make businesses more vulnerable to cyberattacks during the summer months. Businesses tend to be more flexible, as employees go on vacation or work remotely to a greater extent than during the rest of the year.
While 47.1% of researchers and security experts surveyed said they have not seen any specific pattern indicating that the season is related to attacks, 58% claim to have observed more threats in the summer than in other seasons, followed by winter and spring.
They have also seen an increase in phishing attacks, likely because attackers believe employees are less vigilant, or at least more lax about security, than they are during the rest of the year. Malware is in second place, followed by spear phishing and ransomware.
The survey found that “almost 20% of respondents said that more than 50% of employees work away from the office at least 5 days during the summer, even when they are on vacation.” This suggests that it might be better not to work during their vacation.
Just because an employee works out of the office doesn't necessarily mean they work from home. They could be working from a coffee shop or some other place with public Wi-Fi, which certainly doesn't offer the most secure connection.
The survey shows that 34% of security professionals believe the increase in threat is related to employees working remotely. Connecting to public, unsecured Wi-Fi networks is the biggest concern, with 68.1% of security concerned about potential attacks exploiting these connections. Phishing is the second most prevalent threat, with 43% of employees leaving their computers unlocked in public.
