Potential cyber weak points during the festive season

The potential threats and the actions you should take

The festive season is one of the most commercially important periods for your hotel, restaurant, pub, venue or leisure business. It is also one of the most challenging from a cybersecurity perspective. High footfall, stretched teams, seasonal staff, complex event schedules and increased payment activity combine to create conditions where long standing network vulnerabilities become more exposed, while new gaps can emerge unexpectedly. Cybercriminals understand this dynamic well because they know your teams are under pressure, your systems are busy and your oversight becomes harder. As a result, the festive period becomes a peak time for attempted intrusions, payment fraud and data theft.

When you look closely at your environment, you will usually find several recurring security gaps that become especially pronounced in November, December, and early January. Understanding these weaknesses is the first step towards strengthening your resilience and reducing the likelihood of disruption during your busiest trading periods.

Seasonal staffing and access control challenges

You may bring in temporary or short-term staff to manage events, banquets, private parties or extended opening hours. While they are essential for service delivery, this influx of new personnel can strain your access control policies. Temporary team members often need access to POS systems, back-office portals or guest service tools. In the rush to onboard them quickly, you might create generic logins, share passwords or overlook proper role-based permissions.

These shortcuts leave your network vulnerable. Shared credentials make it impossible to track activity effectively, while excessive privileges allow staff to unintentionally access parts of your system they should never see. When seasonal staff leave after Christmas, their accounts may not be revoked promptly, leaving open doors for potential misuse. The challenge usually stems from the speed of onboarding and offboarding rather than malicious intent.

High transaction volume and POS vulnerabilities

Your volume of card payments surges during the festive season. Restaurants turn over multiple sittings, hotels process continuous check ins and check outs, and bars may run high density events. This heightened activity draws attention to your POS terminals, which are historically one of the most targeted components of hospitality networks.

Older devices, outdated firmware, weak network segmentation or reliance on legacy payment systems allow attackers to intercept card data. Malware designed specifically for POS environments can lie undetected when monitoring tools are not actively maintained. Busy staff may overlook unusual terminal behaviour and rushed teams may plug devices into unsecured ports simply to keep queues moving. The combination of older hardware, high transaction pressure and inconsistent oversight makes your POS network a festive season weak point.

Guest Wi Fi networks and segmentation failures

Your guest Wi Fi is essential, but it remains a significant source of security gaps. During the festive period, the number of connected devices increases sharply. Guests attending events, diners waiting for tables, conference attendees and contractors all expect reliable access.

Poorly segmented Wi Fi networks pose a risk when guest traffic runs on the same infrastructure as your back-office systems. Without isolation, attackers can use the guest network as an entry point, scanning for open ports, misconfigured routers or unprotected devices. Even when segmentation exists, outdated access points, weak encryption or unmanaged SSIDs add strain to already overloaded networks. Seasonal congestion increases the opportunity for exploitation.

Phishing, social engineering and staff distraction

One of the most common festive season attack vectors you face is phishing. Your teams are busy, tired, and often multitasking, which increases the likelihood of someone clicking on a suspicious link or responding to a fraudulent message. Attackers tailor their tactics to seasonal patterns such as fake reservation requests, bogus supplier invoices, fraudulent event enquiries or impersonated management emails requesting urgent financial transfers.

A distracted team member may unknowingly provide credentials, authorise payments or download malicious attachments. If you rely heavily on seasonal staff with limited cybersecurity training, your risk grows. Without clear guidance and simple reporting procedures, phishing attempts can slip through unnoticed.

Unpatched systems and postponed maintenance

During peak trading periods, system updates and maintenance often take a back seat (unless you're already a client of ours, obviously). You may feel reluctant to interrupt your POS systems, booking engines or kitchen management platforms with downtime even when critical updates are available. As a result, vulnerabilities remain unpatched at precisely the time attackers are scouting for weaknesses.

Legacy operating systems, unsupported hardware or outdated firewalls make matters worse. Even cloud-based platforms require configuration updates and regular security checks. When these tasks are postponed until January, your attack surface widens considerably throughout December.

Third party integrations and supplier risk

Your business depends on a complex ecosystem of external systems including booking engines, payment gateways, PMS platforms, loyalty apps, entertainment systems, digital signage, and event management tools. Each integration represents another potential vulnerability.

During the festive season, temporary suppliers such as DJ services, catering contractors or function space vendors may request network access for setup or event support. If you lack strict vendor access controls or monitoring, these third-party connections can create untrusted pathways into your core systems. Attackers frequently hijack supply chain relationships to deploy malware or extract data.

IoT devices and overlooked endpoints

Your venue is likely filled with internet connected devices including CCTV cameras, smart thermostats, access control systems, digital door locks, printers, tablets, and kitchen sensors. Many of these endpoints run outdated firmware or default passwords. During festive trading, they often operate unnoticed in the background, making them attractive entry points for attackers. Once compromised, they provide opportunities for lateral movement across your network.

Event specific networks and temporary setups

Pop up bars, Christmas markets, seasonal outdoor spaces and temporary POS stations are common during the festive period. These setups often rely on hastily deployed networks, portable routers or shared mobile hotspots. Security controls are usually weaker, and monitoring is minimal. Since these temporary stations process payments or handle guest interactions, they become ideal targets for attackers searching for less protected pathways.

Strengthening your defences

Although the festive season creates a challenging cybersecurity landscape, you can significantly reduce your exposure with proactive planning. Strengthening your access management, enforcing segmentation, updating devices before the busy period, and ensuring robust POS security all help close common gaps. Regular staff training, especially for seasonal workers, combined with clear reporting processes builds a more vigilant workforce. Supplier access should be tightly controlled, and IoT devices must be inventoried, updated, and monitored.

By addressing these pressure points before the holiday rush, you can keep your operations running smoothly, protect customer data and maintain trust when it matters most.

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