The water may look still at first glance.
That's exactly why Shark Week captures attention year after year. The real threat is rarely obvious on the surface. It's already moving below.
Cybercriminals work the same way. Today's attacks are built to blend into normal business activity until the moment something fails, money is redirected, or systems are taken offline.
And during the summer months, when routines change, employees travel, and oversight becomes lighter, attackers know many businesses are paying less attention than usual.
Here are three threats they're using right now.
1. Invoice fraud and vendor impersonation
Attackers don't always need to break into a system. Often, they only need one convincing email.
This is known as business email compromise (BEC), and it works by posing as a vendor, supplier, or executive your team already recognizes and trusts.
The message looks legitimate, someone processes the payment, and by the time the mistake is discovered, the money is gone.
These scams increase during vacation season for a reason. When the person who usually approves payments is out of office, requests get forwarded to someone who may not know the usual process. Stand-ins are less likely to challenge urgency, and attackers count on that.
A simple safeguard can stop most of these attacks: create a verification step for every financial request that comes through email. A quick confirmation call to a trusted number, not the one in the message, can prevent a costly fraud attempt before it succeeds.
2. Phishing campaigns aimed at distracted staff
Phishing succeeds because it targets people when they're busy, rushed, or distracted.
Attackers intentionally create those moments. An employee sees a password reset alert and clicks without thinking. Someone receives a text that appears to come from IT. An urgent email arrives just before a meeting requesting approval for a wire transfer. Because pausing feels inconvenient, people often act first and verify later.
The strongest defense isn't just technology — it's a security-minded culture.
Employees should feel encouraged to slow down whenever something seems suspicious:
· An unexpected login request
· A payment instruction that appears out of nowhere
· A link in an email they weren't expecting
Attackers use speed to pressure your team. When you slow the process down, you take away one of their biggest advantages.
3. Third-party exposure that spreads quickly
When a vendor with access to your systems is compromised, the risk doesn't stay with them. It can move directly into your environment through the connection they already have.
This is supply chain exposure, and most organizations have far more of it than they realize. Connected software, service providers with stored credentials, and contractors whose access was never removed after a project ended can all create paths into your business that go unnoticed.
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 internally owns those relationships?
If those answers aren't clear, your business may be carrying more risk 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 your business right now.
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 schedules loosen, attention drifts, and the water appears calmest. It's also when attackers are most active.
We help businesses identify where they're exposed across vendors, employee behavior, and daily operations before a problem turns into a breach.
If you don't know where your business stands, schedule a 15-Minute Discovery Call.
Click here or give us a call at 316-867-4566 to schedule your free 15-Minute Discovery Call.
