Before the Holiday Rush: 5 Everyday Security Gaps Worth Closing

Imagine this: it’s the busy stretch before the holidays, and I’m wrapping up a guest article with Pixo. An email arrives that appears to be from someone on their team, asking me to open a revised draft and sign in. The timing fits. The name is familiar. My inbox is already full of order confirmations, shipping updates and year-end invoices, so clicking feels like the natural next step. This is a hypothetical example, not an account of something that happened to Pixo or Integrity.

That’s what makes many security problems hard to spot: they can begin inside an ordinary workday. A familiar message, a helpful shortcut or an account nobody has checked lately can create an opening. The gap is often less about someone being careless and more about a process that depends on assumptions.

The holiday season raises the stakes. Inboxes fill with deals, delivery notices and end-of-year payment requests, while people juggle deadlines and time off. Attackers know that busy, distracted teams are more likely to act before they verify. Technology is making fraud more believable, but verification remains one of our strongest defenses.

Here are five everyday gaps worth a closer look before the year wraps up. None calls for panic. Each offers a manageable conversation that can make your organization more prepared.

A recognizable sender is reassuring, but it isn’t proof that a request is legitimate. Someone can impersonate a colleague, and a compromised email account can be used to send messages that look familiar, sometimes from the correct address and inside an existing conversation. A believable message may ask for credentials, a payment change, a gift card purchase, or access to a shared file. Recognizing the name is only the first check.

These schemes are also increasingly multi-channel. An email may be followed by a phone call, a text, or a chat message that tells the same story, and AI tools can now make a voice sound like someone you know. When several messages agree, it’s natural to assume the story is true, but all of them may come from the same person. Verify the transaction, not just the message.

The useful habit is to verify the request through a separate, known-good channel. Call a number you already have or contact the person through an established route, rather than using contact details supplied in the questionable message. Urgency should be a reason to slow down, not a reason to skip verification. As Integrity’s Chief Information Security Officer, Scott Stevens, puts it: urgency is a business condition, not a reason to eliminate a security control.

Try this: agree on which requests always require a second check, especially payment or bank-account changes, gift card requests and unexpected sign-in prompts. When something seems off, stop, verify and report. Tell your IT or security contact, and if money has already moved, call your bank right away. If you already clicked or entered information, say so promptly. A fast, factual report is more useful than embarrassment or silence.

Every organization appreciates the person who knows how everything works. Trouble starts when that person’s account is also the only route to critical systems. A departure, a locked account or simply a holiday vacation can leave everyone else unsure how to recover access. That is a continuity problem as well as a security concern.

The answer is not to give everyone administrator privileges or pass around one powerful login. Administrative access should be protected and limited to what each role needs. The organization also needs a documented, secure recovery path that authorized people can use when normal access is unavailable. Your IT team should determine the appropriate authentication, safeguards and oversight.

Try this: before the holiday break, ask who can recover access if your primary administrator is unavailable. Confirm that the process is documented, that responsibility is assigned and that your IT team reviews it. A recovery plan should not depend on finding a sticky note or guessing which former employee has the password.

Passwords tend to collect wherever work happens: a spreadsheet, a notes app, an email thread, or a saved browser login. The holidays add more to the pile, from new shopping and shipping accounts to seasonal vendor portals. What starts as a personal shortcut can become the unofficial system for a whole team. Then it becomes difficult to know who has access, which credentials are current and what happens when someone leaves.

The question isn’t whether every browser password manager is inherently unsafe. It’s whether your organization has deliberately chosen and manages its approach to business credentials. An organization-approved password manager can support unique, generated passwords and more intentional sharing. Multi-factor authentication adds another layer, but it does not make careless credential handling harmless, and it only works if people never approve a sign-in prompt they didn’t start.

Try this: ask your IT contact which password manager and storage methods are approved. Identify business credentials kept elsewhere and arrange to move them into the approved system. Include shared accounts in that conversation, along with who needs access and who is responsible for keeping it current.

AI can help turn a rough draft into clear writing, summarize a long document or speed up holiday marketing copy and customer emails. Before pasting in customer information, employee details or confidential business material, though, it’s worth asking what happens to that input. A tool’s familiar name or polished interface doesn’t answer that question.

Different products and configurations can handle data differently. Useful questions include who receives it, whether inputs may be used for model training, how long information is retained, whether it can be deleted, who can access it and where it is processed or stored. The underlying technology provider alone does not tell you whether a particular use is appropriate.

AI cuts the other way, too. The same tools help criminals write polished, error-free messages and convincing look-alike websites, which is one more reason the verification habits above matter.

Try this: confirm which AI tools and types of data your organization permits before uploading sensitive material. If the answer is unclear, pause and ask the responsible IT, security or privacy contact. You can still explore a writing idea using non-sensitive information while the organization evaluates the more consequential uses.

A website has more than one set of keys. Your domain registration, DNS settings, hosting and website administration may sit in different accounts with different providers. DNS is the system that directs traffic for your domain. When these relationships are poorly documented, even identifying who can make a necessary change can become a scramble, and that scramble is especially painful in your busiest season.

The risk is not simply using several providers. It is losing visibility into ownership, access, renewals and recovery. A developer’s personal account or an old employee’s email address can become an unintended dependency, and a renewal notice sent to an inbox nobody checks can become a very bad surprise.

Working with a trusted partner is valuable; understanding which assets your organization controls is still important.

Try this: make a short inventory of your domain, DNS, hosting and website accounts. For each, identify the organizational owner, who has authorized access, how renewal is handled and how access can be recovered. Review the list with your web partner and IT contact, especially before a staff or vendor transition in the new year. Pixo’s free Keys to Your Website worksheet is a practical companion for building that inventory.

The common thread in these five gaps is visibility: knowing what you have, who can access it and who is responsible when something changes. Technology matters, but so do clear ownership and everyday verification habits. Neither requires treating every message or new tool as a threat.

Choose one gap to discuss before the year ends. Give that conversation an owner and a next step, then work through the others in the new year. Security awareness becomes useful when it moves beyond recognizing risks and into intentional decisions about how your organization works. And whenever a request is urgent, unusual, confidential or financial, pause and verify before you act.

As Business Development Executive at Integrity Technology Solutions, Ben Mitzelfelt helps leaders think clearly about risk, operations, and growth, and then align IT, cybersecurity, and process around what actually matters to their business.