At first glance, the water looks peaceful.
That's exactly why Shark Week grabs attention every year. The real danger isn't obvious on the surface—it's what's already moving below it.
Cybercriminals work the same way. Today's threats are built to blend into everyday business activity until the moment something fails, money is redirected, or systems go offline.
And during the summer, when routines shift, employees travel, and oversight gets lighter, attackers know businesses are often paying less attention.
Here are three threats they're using right now.
1. Counterfeit invoices and vendor fraud
Attackers usually don't need to break in. In many cases, all it takes is one convincing email.
This 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 legitimate, someone sends the payment to the "vendor," and by the time the scam is discovered, the loss has already happened.
These attacks increase during vacation season for a simple reason. When the person who normally approves payments is away, requests are handed off to someone who may not know what normal looks like. Fill-in staff are less likely to question urgency, and criminals count on that.
The solution is easy to put in place: Create a verification step for any financial request that comes in by email. A quick call to a trusted number, not the one in the message, can stop most of these scams before they succeed.
2. Phishing designed for distracted teams
Phishing succeeds because it's built around how people behave when they're busy.
Cybercriminals intentionally create those moments. A distracted employee gets a password reset alert and clicks through. Someone receives a text that appears to come from IT. An email arrives just before a meeting asking for urgent wire approval. No one pauses to verify because slowing down feels inconvenient.
The strongest defense isn't just technology—it's a security-minded culture.
Employees should feel confident stopping to check when something seems unusual:
· An unexpected login request
· A payment instruction that appeared without warning
· A link in an email they weren't expecting
Attackers use urgency to get people moving fast. Slowing down takes that advantage away.
3. Third-party exposure that spreads quickly
If a vendor with access to your systems gets compromised, the threat doesn't stay with them. It can move straight into your environment through the connection they have to your business.
This is supply chain risk, and most businesses have far more of it than they realize. Network-connected software, service providers with stored credentials, and contractors whose access was never removed after a project all create exposure many owners have never fully mapped.
Outsourcing a service does not outsource responsibility.
To understand your supply chain risk, 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 company is responsible for managing those relationships?
If those answers aren't clear, your business is exposed to unnecessary risk.
By the time you notice it, it's already in motion
Sharks don't announce themselves, and neither do the cybercriminals targeting your business right now.
The companies that get hit aren't always the ones that ignore obvious warning signs. They're often the ones that assume everything is fine because nothing looks wrong.
Summer is when schedules loosen, attention drifts, and the water looks calmest. It's also when attackers are often most active.
We help businesses uncover exposure across vendors, employee behavior, and daily operations before a breach or disruption occurs.
If you're not sure where your business stands, schedule a 15-Minute Discovery Call.
Click here or give us a call at 888-624-7383 to schedule your free 15-Minute Discovery Call.
