Holiday Cybersecurity:
How To Stay Safe Outside the Office

When the holiday season rolls around, many small and medium-sized businesses shift into a different mode, with fewer people in the office and employees working remotely, which likely includes some business travel, or working from hotel rooms, airports, and temporary workspaces. These changes may offer flexibility or feel like a welcome break from the usual routine, but they also open new windows of risk for your business.

At Clark Computer Services, we see this pattern more during the holidays, with devices leaving the protected office network, employees logging in from unfamiliar WiFi networks, and business operations continuing even while key team members are out of the building. The same distractions, travel logistics, and festive mindset that often dominate personal schedules can affect work, and cyber-criminals know it. Maintaining cybersecurity during this time of year requires a little planning and a few best practices to mitigate those vulnerabilities.

Why Your Business Should Pay Attention

When someone accesses business systems from a hotel room, coffee shop, or while travelling for a client meeting, there are a range of security concerns that your technical security usually handles. The protections that apply inside your office, including a trusted network, managed devices, and threat alerts, are unlikely to follow employees. Remote work scenarios, especially during holiday seasons, are frequently cited as prime times for cyberattacks due to increased remote access, fewer onsite staff, and less rigorous monitoring.

Whether you’re supporting clients, accessing company data, or simply finishing the year-end workload from outside the office, the risks are real.

Practical Steps for Employees Working Outside the Office

The good part about this is that holiday travel is unlikely to come as a surprise; most trips are planned well in advance, so both the business and the employee have time to prepare for security. When you’re working outside the regular office environment, the best protections are awareness and preparation. Here are the key things to keep in mind during business travel or remote-from-home work:

Secure Your Networks and Devices

For business travellers or remote workers, the WiFi you use matters. Hotel or café networks can be monitored or compromised, so a solid virtual private network (VPN) is vital to encrypt your connection and protect your data. (And yes, this still applies when you’re working from home on a holiday schedule.) Also, before traveling, update your devices, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones, so they are up to date with the latest security patches and antivirus software. Remote-work reporting shows that home or mobile devices are a weak link in the security chain.

Monitor Access and Authentication

When you’re not at your desk with your usual network, you become more visible to attackers, making it essential to use strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA) to stay secure. The vast majority of breaches, especially for small businesses, begin with compromised credentials. With this in mind, avoid logging into corporate systems from shared or public computers (such as rental-car kiosks or hotel business centres), since most computers offer too many ways to store credentials, and you won’t know if there’s malicious software hiding in the background. Try your best to avoid them, but if you must use one of these, make sure you log out completely, clear any local credentials, and think about changing your passwords.

Be Especially Alert for Phishing Attacks

With so much going on, we tend to be distracted, leading to lowered vigilance during the holiday season. Employees are multitasking to get things done before leaving the office, their attention is easily diverted, and attackers exploit that by using themed phishing lures, such as “urgent end-of-year billing,” “holiday bonus approval,” or “account credentials update needed.” If you receive an unusual request, double-check it using a known contact method; don’t assume it’s legitimate because the email appears festive or holiday-themed.

Plan for Continuity During Limited Office Hours

When staff numbers are lower, resources tend to be stretched thin, which can affect your ability to detect and respond to threats. A recent white paper on holiday cyber risk shows how reduced staffing makes businesses more vulnerable, and the different ways cybercriminals can exploit those vulnerabilities. Before the holidays get started, make sure your business has a clear plan, including who on the team is monitoring alerts, what to do if a device is lost, stolen, or compromised while traveling, and how to react to a suspicious link while working remotely.

Think About Holiday and Remote Security Now

If your company treats the holiday season as a “lighter” period for security, you risk becoming a target. Many organizations report spikes in remote-work incidents and holiday‐specific access challenges. Instead of letting security lax, use this period as an opportunity to tighten controls, refresh training, and remind teams of best practices to avoid incidents that could derail your business.

At Clark Computer Services, we help businesses prepare year-round for secure remote work and travel. Whether your team is working from home while the office is partially closed, accessing systems on the road, or simply juggling business and personal schedules in a hybrid environment, we assist with risk assessments, device-hardening, VPN setup, access policies, and awareness training. If you’re approaching a period of business travel, shifting to remote-work mode, or your office will be operating at limited capacity during the holidays, give us a call at 301-456-6931 or email [email protected]. We’ll help you map out where your vulnerabilities might lie and build a plan you can trust, not just for this season, but for next year too.