Every year, as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the wider peak retail season approach, the conversation turns to sales volumes, customer experience, and supply chain resilience. Yet, this year in particular, there is perhaps a more insidious risk at play, following the succession of high-profile cyber-attacks that have come to light in recent months - from Marks & Spencer to Adidas and Pandora.
Couple peak trading with a vulnerability in an organisation’s digital foundations, and that cyber risk becomes a threat to the entire operation. What’s more, it doesn’t discriminate by size. A global retailer running hundreds of storefronts and an SME handling a sudden influx of online orders face the same underlying issue; when core processes sit across disconnected tools, the gaps between them can become more dangerous than leaders realise. Those cracks are where attackers get through.
The pressure of the Golden Quarter
From late October onwards, businesses of all kinds shift into high alert. In larger businesses, marketing teams ramp up spend; customer service teams firefight record volumes; and HR and operations accelerate necessary onboarding, seasonal training, and policy updates. Translate that into an SME scenario, and it could be a small handful of people navigating the entire thing.
Regardless of business size, the success of trade in high-pressure, high-volume environments relies on clarity, speed, and repeatable processes. Operational fragmentation undermines all three.
A surprising number of organisations still operate with a patchwork of unconnected systems - consider a chat tool for quick updates, a shared drive for documents, a third-party portal for training, and spreadsheets or emails for approvals. When demand surges, the cracks widen. An untracked policy change, an outdated access permission, or a mismatched version of a procedure can go unnoticed. Under pressure, staff default to what feels fastest rather than what is governed. That’s when mistakes can happen.
Breaches often begin not with a sophisticated exploit, but with small lapses inside the organisation - whether that’s inconsistent user provisioning, neglected training, or policy confirmations that no one can verify.
Why fragmentation amplifies risk
The digital workplace is no longer the supporting act for core operations; in Q4 2025, it is the infrastructure that holds them together. When that infrastructure is fragmented, operational risk and cyber risk become entwined.
Recurring issues that surface during peak trading include:
- Duplicated and outdated information - Different teams store their own versions of policies and checklists. Under pressure, staff may not know which version is correct, leaving compliance open to interpretation.
- Inconsistent onboarding and training - Temporary or seasonal workers may be onboarded through different routes, so essentials like recognising phishing attempts, using strong unique passwords, enabling multi-factor authentication, and knowing how to report suspicious activity are not consistently covered.
- Unmanaged permissions - High turnover and rapid changes in staffing make it easy for privileges to drift, creating unnecessary access or dormant accounts that widen the attack surface.
Increased pressure on IT and security teams - As the number of tools grows, so too does the challenge of enforcing user best practices, such as multi-factor authentication and strong passwords. The more systems IT have to monitor, the harder it becomes to guarantee that employees consistently follow the basics.
Individually, these issues may appear trivial. But together, they create the kind of ambiguity in which attackers thrive.
The vulnerabilities shared by SMEs and global enterprises
However, there is a misconception that cyber vulnerability is primarily a problem for large enterprises. In reality, SMEs face similar risks - and often with fewer controls. A small business using a dozen disconnected tools can end up with a digital estate just as fragmented as a multinational with sprawling legacy systems. Peak trading amplifies this because people move quickly, and the organisation becomes more reliant on shortcuts and workarounds.
In both cases, fragmentation can lead to the same consequences - that is, unclear ownership, reduced visibility, and difficulty proving that compliance processes are working. During the busiest period of the year, this becomes more than just an IT problem; it becomes a business continuity issue.
Why integration is emerging as a universal defence
The most effective way to reduce risk is not by implementing more technology, but by creating better connections between the tools an organisation already uses - and making it as easy as possible for people to deploy them.
Bringing routine communication, training, documents, and workflows into a single, governed environment, like Claromentis, creates clarity. Staff know where critical information lives. Policy changes are published once and are easy to access. Onboarding follows a defined, consistent and trackable path for all hires, giving leaders clear evidence of who has completed the required training and when. Permissions can be managed centrally, reducing the chance of drift. Human error declines because staff have a single source of truth for operational and service knowledge, defined processes to follow, and self-service training they can access on demand. What’s more, security becomes a collective responsibility.
This isn’t about forcing every team into the same system or eliminating specialist platforms; finance, engineering, and marketing all need the tools suited to their disciplines. The goal is to unify the everyday journeys that cut across the organisation, such as the moments where employees find information, receive updates, complete training, and follow processes. Those are the moments most vulnerable to inconsistency under pressure.
A practical route to resilience
For most organisations, the first step is mapping their reality. Identify where policies currently live, how training is delivered, and how approvals or incidents are handled. If the answers span more than a handful of places, fragmentation is already creating risk.
Then, simplify the touchpoints. Provide employees with one starting point - a central hub - to access the essentials and integrate with specialist systems, rather than replicate them. Then, use data to monitor whether people are finding what they need or whether bottlenecks persist. The bottom line is that the more aligned your internal foundations, the harder it becomes for mistakes or oversights to open the door to attackers.
Clarity is the strongest defence
Peak trading will always be demanding, but businesses can control how exposed they are when the pressure rises. Fragmentation creates uncertainty, and uncertainty creates risk. Integration creates clarity, and clarity creates resilience.
As cyber threats become more opportunistic, the most valuable thing any organisation can do over the coming weeks is to ensure that its internal systems work together.
When information, training, and processes are joined up, the organisation becomes harder to breach, easier to run, and better prepared for the moments when the stakes are highest.
Will Emmerson is chief information officer at Claromentis, a unique digital workplace that offers three core tools - a company intranet, e-learning system, and process management features - supported by its own bespoke AI functionality.
