The holidays are prime time for cyberbreaches.

December is a busy month for shoppers — and online criminals. 

A survey of 505 business owners exclusively released to Chain Store Age from secure web hosting provider Liquid Web found that 64% identify December as their peak sales month. But a leading 39% also cite December as the busiest month for cyber incidents. The survey assessed respondents’ cybersecurity readiness.

On average, respondents have faced three cyber incidents during the peak holiday shopping months of October through December, but 24% have experienced five or more. The individual holidays where respondents report having dealt with cyber incidents include:

• Black Friday/Cyber Monday: 26%
• Christmas: 25%
• New Year’s: 12%
• Thanksgiving: 8%
• Halloween: 7%

On average, the survey indicates it takes just over 10 hours to respond to a cyber incident during holiday shopping. During peak shopping months, 28% of respondents have had to deploy emergency patches, which involves fixing vulnerabilities in software to address security gaps as a reactive approach.

The survey also examined respondent experiences with cybersecurity outside of the peak holiday shopping season. In the past year, one in two have suffered phishing attacks, and almost three in four (73%) report facing at least one cyber threat.

These incidents can be costly, with respondents anticipating an average revenue loss of $147,848 if a significant cybersecurity issue arises during a peak shopping month. Beyond financial impacts, 12% of respondents noted long-term damage to customer loyalty and trust following recent cyber incidents.