News has broken this week of a significant cyber attack targeting France’s national postal service, La Poste, and its banking arm, La Banque Postale. Occurring just days before Christmas, this incident has caused widespread disruption to package deliveries and online banking services during the busiest week of the year.
For businesses and consumers alike, this serves as a stark reminder: cyber criminals do not take a holiday. in fact, they often view the festive season as a prime opportunity to launch their most disruptive attacks.
Disruption When It Hurts the Most
On Monday, 22 December, La Poste confirmed it had suffered a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. This malicious traffic flooded their systems, rendering websites and mobile applications inaccessible.
The timing could not have been worse. With millions of customers rushing to send last-minute gifts and manage holiday finances, the attack forced the organisation to revert to manual processes and SMS authentication for banking. While La Poste has stated that customer data does not appear to have been compromised, the operational impact—and the reputational damage—is significant.
This incident highlights a tactical trend we see frequently in the cyber security landscape. Attackers deliberately time their campaigns to coincide with periods of maximum pressure, knowing that the potential for chaos (and the pressure to resolve it quickly) is at its peak.
Why the Holidays Are “Peak Season” for Cyber Attacks
The holiday period creates a “perfect storm” for cyber threats for several reasons:
- Reduced Staffing: Many organisations operate with skeletal IT and security staff during the holidays. Response times can be slower, giving attackers a larger window of opportunity to move laterally through a network before being detected.
- Increased Traffic: With high volumes of legitimate traffic (like shoppers on a retail site or users tracking parcels), it becomes much harder to distinguish malicious DDoS traffic from genuine customer activity.
- Distraction and Urgency: Employees are often rushing to clear their inboxes before their leave begins. This makes them more susceptible to phishing emails disguised as urgent invoices, delivery notifications, or holiday bonuses.
- Pressure to Pay: In the case of ransomware (though La Poste appears to be a DDoS attack), attackers know that businesses cannot afford downtime during their peak trading period. They bank on the victim being more willing to pay a ransom for a quick restoration of services.
Don’t Let Cyber Threats Ruin Your Break
The attack on La Poste is a sombre example of how quickly operations can be destabilised. However, it also provides a valuable lesson on the importance of year-round vigilance.
At Vertex, we specialise in helping businesses maintain strong defences regardless of the season. From round-the-clock monitoring to expert penetration testing that identifies weaknesses before hackers do, we are here to support your security journey.
If you are concerned about your current security posture or want to ensure you have the right protections in place for the year ahead, contact the expert team at Vertex.
We can help you navigate the complexities of cyber security so you can focus on your business (and your holiday) with greater peace of mind.