Scofield Thomas, Managing Director of 800TECH, and Keron Rose on radio programme the Digital World: End-of-year is full of excitement including leave plans, office parties, school events, family dinner; the whole vibe is ease up and exhale but IT Housekeeping is one thing we don’t talk about enough this time of year. This can make or break how smoothly a business rolls into January.
End-of-year IT housekeeping.
While your team is relaxing, threat actors are not. Hackers don’t take a break for holidays. In fact, the season can be the perfect window for attacks because of less vigilance, fewer staff on duty, and slower response times.
To break down what end-of-year IT housekeeping actually looks like, we sat with Scofield Thomas, Managing Director of 800 TECH, to talk through the risks and the practical actions businesses should take before closing out the year.
Why Year-End Is a High-Risk Period
Scofield puts it plainly stating that December changes the workplace rhythm.
People are more relaxed. Teams are rushing to finish deliverables and get to the next event. IT staff, after supporting the business all year, often start “coasting” into the final weeks.
That combination creates gaps which is exactly what cybercriminals look for. One of the biggest issues, Phishing increases. Not always because the attacks are more sophisticated but because users are distracted and more likely to click without thinking.
What “End-of-Year IT Housekeeping” Means
What should a typical business owner be doing right now? Scofield’s advice is straightforward which is to treat year end like a checkpoint. A time to review what changed during the year, reduce unnecessary access, and harden systems before you walk into a new year.
Here are the first areas he recommends focusing on.
1) Audit Your User List
Start with a basic but critical control. Review your user accounts by documenting Who joined this year?, Who left?, Who has changed roles? and Who still has access “just in case”?. You would be surprised how often old accounts remain active from employees who left months or even years ago. Those accounts are easy targets if compromised, they are also harder to notice because no one is watching them closely. Scofield offered a business owner tip “Ask your IT team for a ‘User Access Report’ and a list of disabled vs active accounts.”
2) Vacation Accounts Are a Hidden Risk
At one point Scofield highlighted that many companies overlook that there are risks when employees go on vacation and often their accounts usually stay active. That becomes a risk because most likely the person is not actively checking email or logging in regularly, IT reps can miss suspicious activity and if staff email gets compromised, attackers can use it quietly. In a normal week, monitoring tools or IT staff might catch a compromised account quickly. In December, it may remain undetected while teams are short-staffed. Scofield suggested a clear leave-coverage process: assign who monitors urgent communications, confirm which alerts the team uses, and specify which access the IT team should temporarily reduce.
3) Don’t Let December Be Your “Relaxed Security Month”
December feels like the end of work, but for cybersecurity it’s often when you need to tighten up. That doesn’t mean panic. It means having a checklist and making sure basic controls are in place before staff availability drops and the business transitions into the new year.
A Simple Action Step for This Week
If you do nothing else, start here. Request a user access audit by asking your IT team to confirm whether they have disabled, ensure that no shared accounts exist without controls, there is vacation coverage and monitoring is in place and IT team reviews and justifies Admin privileges. That one conversation can close a huge number of common gaps.
End-of-year IT housekeeping isn’t about being overly technical rather it’s about being intentional. You can enjoy the end-of-year events but don’t let a relaxed season turn into a January incident report.
If you need support reviewing accounts, policies, alerts, or your overall security posture, call 800 TECH as we can help you walk into the new year with confidence.