At first glance, the water seems calm.
That's exactly what makes Shark Week so gripping every year. The real danger is rarely visible on the surface. It's already moving below.
Cybercriminals work the same way. The threats businesses are dealing with now are built to look like normal activity until the moment a payment clears, a system fails, or sensitive data is exposed.
And during the summer months, when routines change, employees travel, and oversight gets lighter, attackers know many businesses are less alert than usual.
Here are three ways they're circling right now.
1. Fake invoices and vendor impersonation
In many cases, attackers don't need to break into anything. They only need to send one convincing email.
That's the idea behind business email compromise (BEC). Criminals pose as a vendor, supplier, or executive your team already recognizes and trusts.
The email looks routine, someone approves the payment, and by the time the request is challenged, the money is already gone.
These scams rise during vacation season for a very simple reason. When the person who normally approves payments is out, requests often get redirected to someone who doesn't know what the process should look like. Temporary coverage creates the perfect opening, and attackers count on it.
A simple safeguard can stop most of them: put a verification step in place for every financial request received by email. A quick callback to a trusted number, not the one listed in the message, can shut these attacks down fast.
2. Phishing attacks that catch distracted employees
Phishing works because it exploits how people behave when they're under pressure.
Attackers deliberately create those moments. A distracted employee sees a password reset alert and clicks. Someone gets a text that appears to come from IT. An email lands just before a meeting asking for urgent wire approval. Nobody stops to verify because slowing down feels inconvenient.
The best defense isn't just technology—it's mindset.
Employees should feel comfortable pausing when something seems unusual:
· An unexpected login request
· A payment instruction that came out of nowhere
· A link in an email they weren't expecting
Attackers rely on speed to create mistakes. Slowing down takes that advantage away.
3. Third-party risks that move quickly
When 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 many companies have far more of it than they realize. Connected software tools, service providers with active credentials, and contractors whose access was never removed after a project ended can all create hidden paths into your network.
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 business may be more exposed than you think.
By the time you notice it, the threat is already in motion
Sharks don't announce themselves, and neither do the cybercriminals targeting businesses right now.
The companies that get hit aren't always the ones who ignore obvious red flags. More often, it's the businesses that assume everything is fine because nothing looks wrong.
Summer is when schedules loosen, attention slips, and the water looks calmest. It's also when attackers stay busiest.
We help businesses identify exposure across vendors, employee behavior, and everyday operations before a small gap turns into a major issue.
If you don't know where your business stands, schedule a Discovery Call.
Click here or give us a call at (802) 331-1900 to schedule your free Discovery Call.
