Security News > 2021 > November > US government warns of increased ransomware threats during Thanksgiving
An alert issued Monday by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI urged organizations to be on guard for ransomware attacks that take advantage of worker downtime during Thanksgiving.
Launching cyberattacks during a holiday or even a weekend is hardly a new strategy for criminals.
Ransomware attacks have occurred in the past on Independence Day and Mother's Day weekends.
"The one thing cybercriminals love more than money is attacking during holiday weekends specific to American culture," said James McQuiggan, security awareness advocate for KnowBe4.
To help your security staff protect your organization from holiday-based ransomware attacks, CISA and the FBI advise you to analyze your existing cybersecurity processes and follow best practices to reduce the risks.
Further, ransomware attacks are often preceded by some type of scam or ploy designed to gain access to account credentials, vulnerable systems and critical networks.
News URL
Related news
- US charges operators of cryptomixers linked to ransomware gangs (source)
- Top 3 Ransomware Threats Active in 2025 (source)
- All your 8Base are belong to us: Ransomware crew busted in global sting (source)
- US sanctions LockBit ransomware’s bulletproof hosting provider (source)
- US indicts 8Base ransomware operators for Phobos encryption attacks (source)
- US newspaper publisher uses linguistic gymnastics to avoid saying its outage was due to ransomware (source)