At first glance, the water seems peaceful.
That's exactly what makes Shark Week so compelling every year. The real danger isn't visible on the surface—it's what's already circling below.
Cybercriminals work the same way. The threats businesses face today are built to hide inside normal activity until the moment a payment is made, a system fails, or money disappears.
And in the summer months, when routines change, employees travel, and oversight gets thinner, attackers know many businesses are paying less attention.
Here are three threats circling businesses right now.
1. Fake invoices and vendor impersonation
In many cases, attackers don't need to break in. They only need to send one convincing email.
This tactic is known as business email compromise (BEC), and it relies on pretending to be a vendor, supplier, or executive your team already knows and trusts.
The message looks routine, someone on your team sends the payment, and by the time the fraud is discovered, the loss has already happened.
These scams increase during vacation season for a straightforward reason. When the person who normally approves payments is away, requests get redirected to someone who may not know what normal should look like. Temporary coverage makes urgency easier to exploit—and attackers count on that.
A simple safeguard can make a big difference: Create a verification step for every financial request received by email. A quick call to a trusted number—not the one in the message—can stop most fraudulent requests before any money moves.
2. Phishing attacks aimed at distracted employees
Phishing succeeds because it takes advantage of people when they're busy and rushed.
Cybercriminals plan for those exact moments. A distracted employee sees a password reset alert and clicks without thinking. 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 check because pausing feels slower in the moment.
The best defense is not just technology—it's a security-minded culture.
Employees should feel confident slowing down whenever something seems unusual:
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An unexpected login request
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A payment instruction that came out of nowhere
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A link in an email they weren't expecting
Attackers use speed to pressure your team. Slowing down takes that advantage away.
3. Third-party risks that spread quickly
If a vendor with access to your systems is compromised, the risk does not stop with them. It can move directly into your environment through the connection they already have to your business.
This is supply chain exposure, and most businesses have far more of it than they realize. Network-connected software, service providers with saved credentials, and contractors whose access was never removed after a project ended can all create entry points that business owners may never have fully mapped.
Outsourcing a service does not outsource accountability.
To understand your 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 organization is responsible for managing those relationships?
If those answers are unclear, your risk is higher than you think.
By the time you notice it, it's already moving
Sharks don't announce themselves, and neither do the cybercriminals targeting your business right now.
The companies that get hit are not always the ones that ignore obvious warning signs. More often, they're the ones that assume everything is fine because nothing looks unusual.
Summer brings looser schedules, more distractions, and a calmer-looking surface. It's also when attackers are most active.
We help businesses uncover their exposure across vendors, employee behavior, and daily operations before a threat turns into a costly incident.
If you're not sure where your business stands, schedule a Business Technology Alignment Assessment.
Click here or give us a call at (646) 989-9900 to schedule your free Business Technology Alignment Assessment.
