Hackers Play On Black Friday?

The weekend after Thanksgiving marks the massive start of the holiday shopping season. But it’s also become the time when hackers come out to play, creating mischief and mayhem for unsuspecting computer users.

 

British security consultants Gartner Security Systems have warned people to be very vigilant over the next few days, and that companies should ramp up IT security over the period.

 

"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," said GSS managing director David Hobson in a statement. "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."

 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as they’ve become known, have become times of the year when hackers try out their skills.