Marshall Erwin, CISO at Fastly, highlights the potential cyber risks during the busy holiday season and ways organisations can combat them.

While consumers prepare to enjoy the holiday season, a different reality plays out in the shadows.

Cybersecurity teams are bracing themselves for what amounts to their annual “perfect storm” – a period where an online shopping frenzy combines with intensified cybersecurity incidents & cyberattacks, creating a particularly explosive cocktail for digital security.

Seven months to recover from cybersecurity incidents: The invisible shockwave

The threat has never been more pressing.

Our latest study reveals a chilling reality: companies now take more than seven months to fully recover from cybersecurity incidents.

That’s seven months during which their reputation, operations and growth are compromised.

It’s like rebuilding a house while still living in it – a perilous exercise that puts both teams and systems to the test.

The threat landscape has radically evolved.

Attackers no longer rely on simplistic, opportunistic tactics.

They now orchestrate sophisticated campaigns, leveraging artificial intelligence and automation to multiply their impact.

Cybercrime has become professionalised and industrialised, evolving into a parallel economy that thrives on our vulnerabilities.

Beyond technology: rethinking our approach to security

Faced with this new reality, the traditional approach to cybersecurity is showing its limitations.

Multiplying technical solutions is no longer sufficient. It’s like stacking locks on a door while thieves are coming through the windows.

Cyber resilience today demands a complete overhaul of how we think about security.

Real security effectiveness comes from consolidation and integration, not multiplication of tools.

With organisations running an average of eight security solutions – 37% of which overlap in functionality – the path forward isn’t adding more tools, but building a cohesive, integrated security architecture that eliminates gaps while reducing complexity.

The organisations that will succeed are those that understand that cybersecurity is not a technical constraint, but a strategic imperative that determines their long-term survival.

Accepting the new normal

As we approach 2025, we must accept an uncomfortable truth: cybersecurity incidents and cyberattacks are no longer isolated incidents but a daily reality we must learn to coexist with.

The question is no longer if we will be attacked, but when and how we will recover.

The holiday season is merely a magnifying mirror of this new paradigm.

It reminds us that in a world where digital has become the nervous system of our economy, security can no longer be an afterthought.

It must be the foundation upon which we build our digital future.

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