At first glance, the water seems peaceful.
That's exactly why Shark Week grabs attention every year: the threat is never obvious on the surface. The real danger is what's already moving below.
Cybercriminals work the same way. Today's attacks are built to blend into normal business activity until the moment a payment is approved, a system fails, or money disappears.
And during the summer—when calendars fill up, employees travel, and oversight naturally slips—they know businesses are often looking the other way.
Here are three threats they're using right now.
1. Fraudulent invoices and vendor impersonation
In many cases, attackers never need to break into anything. One convincing email is enough.
This tactic, known as business email compromise (BEC), relies on impersonating a vendor, supplier, or executive your team already recognizes and trusts.
The message looks routine. Someone processes the payment to the "vendor." By the time the fraud is discovered, the funds are already gone.
These scams surge during vacation season for a reason. When the usual approver is out, requests are redirected to employees who may not know what normal should look like. Temporary coverage creates confusion, and attackers count on it.
The best defense is easy to put in place: create a verification step for every financial request that comes in by email. A quick call to a trusted number—not the one included in the message—can stop most fraudulent payments before they happen.
2. Phishing attacks aimed at distracted employees
Phishing succeeds because it exploits how people behave when they're busy.
Cybercriminals time these messages carefully. A rushed employee sees a password reset prompt and clicks. Someone gets a text that appears to come from IT. An email arrives just before a meeting asking for urgent wire approval. In the moment, verifying the request feels slower than responding.
The strongest protection isn't just technology—it's a security-first culture.
Employees should feel confident pausing when something feels off:
· An unexpected login request
· A payment instruction that appeared without warning
· A link in an email they weren't expecting
Attackers use speed to pressure people into mistakes. When your team slows down, you take that advantage away.
3. Third-party risk that spreads quickly
When a vendor with access to your systems is compromised, the risk doesn't stay with them. It can move straight into your environment through every connection they have to your business.
This is supply chain exposure, and most organizations have more of it than they realize. Connected software, service providers holding credentials, and contractors whose access was never removed all create hidden entry points many business owners have never fully mapped.
Outsourcing a service does not outsource accountability.
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 connecting to?
3. Who inside your business is responsible for managing those relationships?
If those answers aren't clear, your risk is already higher than it should be.
By the time you notice it, it's already in motion
Sharks don't announce themselves, and neither do the cybercriminals targeting your business.
The companies that get hit aren't always the ones ignoring obvious red flags. More often, they're the ones assuming everything is fine because nothing looks wrong.
Summer is when routines loosen, attention drifts, and the water looks the calmest. It's also when attackers are often most active.
We help businesses identify where they're exposed across vendors, employee behavior, and day-to-day operations before a costly incident occurs.
If you're not sure where your business stands, schedule a Consult.
Click here or give us a call at 952-941-7333 to schedule your free Consult.
