It’s the holidays! Everyone is busy shopping, getting ready for parties, meeting folks for a cup of good cheer, and all manner of other fun activities. Yes, it is safe to say that the holidays generally fill people with feelings of warmth and good cheer.

It’s also a great time of year for hackers! The fact that people are busy, distracted and even a little bit tipsy is what fills them with good cheer. What better time to break into a network and get your hands on some private information or to set up a blackmail scheme?

That is why it is most important for you not to neglect your log monitoring and other information security duties during the silly season. Make sure you don’t turn off alerting on your systems, look for activity at odd times of the day, and make sure you are monitoring what leaves the network and where it’s going. If you neglect these tasks now you just might not have any happy holidays at all!