GSS warns of Black Friday hackerfest

“The bad news is that US hackerdom usually takes advantage of the long holiday weekend to generate all sorts of malware and hacker attacks on Internet-connected computer systems worldwide,” explains David Hobson, GSS managing director. Because of the upcoming weekend-long hackerfest, which experts now call Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Hobson recommends that UK organisations review their IT security arrangements and make sure all their security patches are up to date. “They should also prepare for the worst and review their ongoing business continuity arrangements in the event of an IT disaster striking, he warns. “Thanksgiving in the US is the time when retailers give out freebies to their customers. Companies in the UK should watch out for hacker freebies that take the shape of malware-infected email and other digital mayhem. This is always a bad time of the year for malware,” he adds.