At first glance, the water seems still.
That's what makes Shark Week so gripping every year: the threat is rarely obvious on the surface. The danger is already there, moving below what you can see.
Cybercriminals operate the same way. Today's attacks are built to look like normal business activity until the moment an invoice gets paid, data is exposed or systems stop working.
And in the summer, when routines shift, employees travel and oversight gets lighter, attackers know many businesses are paying less attention than usual.
Here are three threats swimming close to shore right now.
1. Fake invoices and vendor impersonation
In many cases, attackers never need to break in. They only need to send one email that looks legitimate.
This tactic is known as business email compromise (BEC). It works by posing as a vendor, supplier or executive your team already recognizes and trusts.
The message looks routine, someone approves payment to the "vendor," and by the time the fraud is discovered, the money is gone.
These scams increase during vacation season for a predictable reason. When the usual approver is unavailable, requests often go to backups who may not know what the process should look like. Attackers count on that gap in familiarity and urgency often wins.
The best defense is easy to put in place: create a verification step for every financial request that comes by email. A quick callback to a known number, not the number included in the message, can stop most fraudulent payments before they happen.
2. Phishing attacks aimed at distracted employees
Phishing succeeds because it exploits human behavior, especially when people are busy, rushed or distracted.
Cybercriminals plan for those moments. An employee sees a password reset notice and clicks. A text appears to come from IT. An email lands just before a meeting with an urgent request for wire approval. No one pauses to double-check because pausing feels inconvenient.
The strongest protection is not just technology; it's a security-minded culture.
Your team should feel confident slowing down whenever something seems unusual:
· An unexpected login request
· A payment instruction that appears without warning
· A link in an email they weren't expecting
Attackers rely on speed to catch people off guard. When your team slows down, you take away one of their biggest advantages.
3. Third-party risks that move fast
If a vendor with access to your systems is compromised, the threat doesn't stay with them. It can move straight into your environment through the connection they already have to your business.
This is supply chain exposure, and most organizations have more of it than they realize. Connected software tools, service providers with stored credentials and contractors whose access was never revoked after a project ended all create possible entry points that many business owners have never fully mapped.
Outsourcing a service does not outsource responsibility.
To understand your supply chain exposure, you need clear answers to three questions:
1. Which vendors can access your data or systems?
2. What are they connected to?
3. Who inside your organization manages those relationships?
If you can't answer those questions quickly, your business may be more exposed than you think.
By the time you notice it, it's already in motion
Sharks don't announce themselves, and neither do the cybercriminals targeting businesses today.
The companies that get hit are not always the ones that ignore obvious warnings. More often, they're the ones that assume everything is fine because nothing appears to be wrong.
Summer is when schedules loosen, attention drifts and the water looks calmest. It's also when attackers are often the busiest.
We help businesses uncover risk across vendors, employee behavior and everyday operations before a small gap turns into a major incident.
If you're unsure where your business stands, schedule a 10-Minute Discovery Call.
Click here or give us a call at 608-416-2400 to schedule your free 10-Minute Discovery Call.
