It’s come to that point in the year, the great annual exodus … holidays …
I too am about to go on vacation, but then comes the big debates:
- What do I put in my out-of-office?
- How do I address my void on social media?
- How do I explain why I’m not replying to comments on blogs?
- Which one of my friends will take my absence as cause for concern?
- Who will work out I’m on holiday and go social with it?
- What impact will all of the above have?
In order to help beat the criminals, I have put together some tips to help you.
Social Media
The issue with social media is the perceived threat that an attacker will know when I am not around and will
- target my account
- target accounts around me
- target accounts known to me pretending to be me on vacation
- target my physical property
So we have an action/inaction dichotomy … I’ll be damned if I do and damned if I don’t !
If I go public and say… I am on vacation, no tweets coming up. See you soon! Then I am exposing myself to the risks outlined above.
If I don’t say anything I risk the issue of people thinking I’m ignoring them etc
My advice would be as follows:
Treat this as a risk-based approach. What is the likelihood of X happening and what impact is there if X happens.
In my case I am a prolific tweeter, so an un-explained absence may be noted by some, but there won’t be a great call to arms. I perceive my physical location is not under threat so I would be happy to either announce or not announce a vacation.
But then you have to think like a criminal. In other words … what are they looking for. The answer is that they are looking for “I’m on vacation” type messages to then target. So it is best to say nothing.
Tips
- Don’t say anything unless you have to.
- Have separate social media accounts for personal stuff so you don’t share your vacation
- Don’t give dates or locations
Handling Family
IRL (in real life) is a great way of combating the cyber threat. My parents and family will know that I am on holiday and so won’t be dialling the emergency services if I don’t “like” a meme they post. A quick call is all that is needed and yet another threat vector. My parents have got good at posting to me while I am away to make me still look live. They also are aware of how I communicate with them so they will know that I won’t be messaging them from holiday.
Tips
- Always let your family know where and when
- Don’t do it online, speak to them
- Let them know when you’re back
Work email
A bit like the trusted connections of above, the challenge is to stop you becoming a vehicle to attack against your colleagues and managers. I know I cannot use my mobile device to keep on top of emails because my partner will kill me and so will my kids! So I know that my emails will be going into an inbox and some semblance of intelligence needs to be applied that causes response or not to certain emails. But I don’t have an AI solution that can work it out.
So my solution months before. You call clients and partners and keep them in the loop as to your movements and when you are unavailable and shortly before I go on vacation, I will email those I am waiting on with a CC email address if required.
Tips
- Don’t over-share
- Don’t put project names in emails “For X contact Y”
- Don’t put other people’s full contact details
- Set up a shared email account with your boss for while you are away for people to contact you at e.g. InterruptHiddenTextsVacation@
- Remember, you may know which email is spam or malicious but your colleagues may not, don’t pass on the risk by letting them take control
- Don’t give your password to a colleague to check things while you are away
Conclusion
It is all about risk treatment. What is the likelihood of something happening and what impact will it be?
So what will my response be …
- I won’t be notifying anyone on social media of my vacation
- My family knows when I’ll be away and so do my clients
- I will have my mobile with me but not for work use
- If I get a call from the boss, then I know it’s serious!
- The world will not stop without you, so have some downtime.
Have a great vacation all and try not to break too many things.
The humorous option
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140707113404-108071439-the-10-funniest-out-of-office-replies
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hilarious-out-of-office-email-auto-replies
I will be unable to delete all the emails you send me until I return from vacation. Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
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