Memorial Day weekend was the unofficial start of summer. It’s also the unofficial start of three months of business operations running on lighter staffing, faster approvals, and people opening email from the airport.

Most summer cybersecurity content out there focuses on the individual on vacation: don’t use sketchy airport Wi-Fi, don’t click weird emails on your phone. Those tips matter, but they miss the bigger exposure: the business itself, running on a skeleton crew, with finance staff covering for each other and a vendor email arriving at exactly the wrong moment.

Out of office cybersecurity for smaller businesses runs on two layers: business operations and employee behavior. The operations layer means verify-don’t-act payment rules, minimum-viable OOO messages, and a designated deputy approver. The behavior layer means trusted Wi-Fi only, no real-time location posting, and a “wait until I’m at a desk” rule for any urgent-looking email arriving on a phone.

Tip 1 : Verify, don’t compromise

The Scenario Your finance person is on vacation. A vendor emails an “urgent” wire transfer change. The deputy approver wants to help. The email looks fine. The wire goes through.

Best Practice Any payment change, vendor banking update, or wire over a set threshold gets second-channel confirmation. Not a reply to the same email. Instead, a phone call to a known number, a Slack message to the person who actually approves, an in-person check. No exceptions. Especially not when the requester says “the boss approved it from the airport.”

• Pre-summer: Write down the threshold and the second-channel rule. Print it, and make sure everyone understands the importance.
• Brief the deputy: Whoever is covering needs to know the rule prior to the primary leaving.
• Make it your company’s mantra: pause and verify. Simple but important.

For context: the 2025 FBI IC3 Annual Report logged $3.05 billion in Business Email Compromise (BEC) losses across roughly 24,768 complaints. BEC is where smaller businesses have the most exposure because it targets the workflow most likely to be running on half a team in July: payment approvals.

Tip 2 — Silence is golden

The Scenario An enthusiastic out-of-office auto-reply: “I’m hiking in Iceland from June 12 through June 26. Please contact Orby at or**@*****ny.com for anything urgent.”

The Risk That message is a reconnaissance report. It tells an attacker exactly who’s gone, for how long, who to impersonate (Orby), and what window to operate in. Combined with a couple of LinkedIn posts about the trip, an attacker has everything they need to send Orby a fake message from you.

Best Practice Minimum viable OOO. Something like: “I’m out of the office and will respond when I return. For urgent matters, please contact our team at in**@*****ny.com” That’s it. No destinations. No dates if you can avoid them. No personal-life details.

• No specific dates: if you can get away with “returning shortly” or “later this month.”
• No personal-life details: Anniversary, beach, conference name, kid’s graduation — all of it is intelligence to a fraudster.
• Internal OOOs can be longer: your team needs context. External OOOs stay generic.
• Train the team: This is one of the most-skipped policies in smaller businesses, and one of the easiest wins to make. Our Awareness Training and Phishing Testing services can build a culture that reinforces the importance of catching these and gives people the training to know how.

 Tip 3 — Think before you click 

The Scenario Phone is open at gate B17. Email arrives from “the boss.” Looks fine. Tap.

The Risk Mobile email apps hide sender details, suppress preview features, and make hover-to-check-the-link impossible. The cognitive defenses you use at your desk, including the millisecond pause where something feels off, get short-circuited on a phone. Phishing thrives on mobile.

Best Practice When in doubt, wait. No urgent click is more urgent than a confirmed click. If a desktop is 30 minutes away, the email can wait 30 minutes.

• Train people to expand the sender field on mobile before tapping any link. The “From: CEO” that looks fine often hides “ce******@***************in.com” one character below.
• Treat any “urgent payment” or “urgent password reset” email arriving on a phone as suspicious by default. Real urgent requests can survive a 10-minute verification call.
• When in doubt, call. The 30-second call beats the cleanup.
• Two seconds is the bar. We often say spotting a phish takes about 2.1 seconds. Everyone on your team is capable of it; they just need to know where to look and what to look out for.

Tip 4 — Wi-Fi: choose wisely 

The Scenario Free_Airport_WiFi_2* at the bottom of the available networks list. Looks legit. Looks free.

The Risk Rogue access points harvest credentials, session tokens, and unencrypted traffic, and they’re routine at airports, hotels, and conferences.

Best Practice Trusted networks only, or VPN. Mobile hotspot beats unknown Wi-Fi every time.

• For sensitive work, including payroll, vendor banking changes, customer data: your mobile hotspot, not the hotel Wi-Fi. Or, better: those tasks can wait until you’re home.
• Keep it locked: Get into the habit of locking your device when you are not using it. Even a few minutes is enough time for someone to steal your information. 

Tip 5 — Share memories, not your location

The Scenario Real-time vacation post on LinkedIn or Instagram, tagged with the resort.

The Risk That post confirms three things to an attacker: you’re gone, you’re here, and you’re gone for at least this long. Combined with your OOO message, it’s a full reconnaissance package. Your CFO’s vacation post is intel for a BEC attacker who is about to impersonate them.

Best Practice Post when you get back: Throwback Thursday is your friend.

• Senior executives in particular: your travel posts are operational intelligence for fraud.
• Same rule for the family: A kid posting “vacation in Maui!” from your phone is the same exposure as you posting it.
• The AI layer: Combine a public vacation post with a voice cloned from any 30-second clip of your CEO online, and a fraudster has the makings of a very convincing “urgent call from the boss.”

For the deeper take on AI-enabled fraud, see AI Scams and Deepfakes: The New Frontier of Small Business Fraud

Your pre-summer 30-minute checklist

If you do nothing else this week:

• Write down the verify-don’t-compromise threshold and post it where finance can see it.
• Brief the summer deputy approver and tell them what to expect.
• Rewrite the team’s OOO templates to the minimum-viable version.
• Send the team this article and have them read it before they log off. 

When you’re back at your desk, but the season isn’t over

Peak summer travel runs through Labor Day. If you put these five rules in place at the beginning of summer, plan a 10-minute re-brief in mid-July.

If you’ve read our article on Holiday Cybercrime: Why Distraction is the Real Threat, think of this as its summer cousin. Same lesson: attackers aren’t busier; the operational shape of your business is what shifts and has useful tips throughout the year.

You’re having a great summer. So are most cybercriminals. The good news: 30 minutes of pre-summer prep is what separates the businesses that spend a Tuesday cleaning up after a fake wire from the businesses that just enjoy the beach.

You shouldn’t need to be a rocket scientist to get good cybersecurity. Ready to Launch? Schedule a Cyber Reality Check to review your cybersecurity strategy and how we may be able to help.

Frequently asked questions

What is the biggest cybersecurity risk during summer for smaller businesses?

For smaller businesses, the biggest summer cybersecurity risk isn’t the airport Wi-Fi, it’s the business running on half a team. Fast approvals, distracted finance staff, and well-meaning deputies are exactly what fraudsters target with Business Email Compromise and wire-transfer scams. The operational gap matters more than the individual traveler’s behavior.

What should an out-of-office message say to be secure?

A secure OOO message gives the minimum information needed. State that you’re out, give a generic team contact (info@ or a shared inbox), and skip the specifics: no dates, no destinations, no personal details. Detailed OOO replies are reconnaissance reports for attackers; minimum-viable replies still get the job done.

Is it safe to use airport or hotel Wi-Fi for work?

Public Wi-Fi is safe enough for general browsing if you use a trusted VPN. For sensitive work including payroll, vendor banking changes, customer data, payment approvals, use your mobile hotspot or wait until you’re on a known network. The risk isn’t theoretical; rogue access points and credential harvesting are routine at airports and hotels.

How do you prevent BEC fraud when the boss is on vacation?

Before anyone leaves, document a “verify, don’t compromise” rule: any payment change, banking update, or wire over a set threshold requires a second-channel confirmation. Assign a deputy approver and brief them on the rule. Train the team to expect “urgent” requests “from the airport” — they’re often fake.

Should employees post about their vacations on social media?

Save the posts for when you’re back. Real-time vacation posts confirm you’re away, where you are, and for how long: useful intelligence for BEC scams and executive impersonation. The risk is higher for senior staff and finance leaders. Family members posting from your phone create the same exposure.