The most dangerous cybersecurity risk in your business often shows up in a new employee’s first week.
The email arrives on a Tuesday morning.
It looks like it is from the CEO. The name matches. The tone feels right. Even the signature looks familiar.
“Hey, can you help me with something quickly? I am in back to back meetings. I need you to handle a vendor payment. I will explain later.”
The new employee pauses.
They have been with the company for four days. They are still figuring out how things work. They do not know what is normal yet, and they definitely do not want to be the person who questions the CEO in their first week.
So they help.
And just like that, the damage is done.
Why the first week is the most dangerous week
Every spring, businesses bring in a new wave of employees. Recent graduates. Summer interns. People stepping into their first professional roles. For companies in Vancouver, it is onboarding season. For attackers, it is opportunity season.
According to Keepnet Lab’s 2025 New Hires Phishing Susceptibility Report, CEO impersonation emails are 45 percent more likely to succeed with new hires than with experienced employees.
Attackers do not target your most seasoned people. They go after the ones still learning the ropes. There is a window at the beginning where everything feels unfamiliar and nothing feels certain.
A new employee does not know what a normal request looks like. They do not know how leadership usually communicates. They have not had time to build confidence or instincts, and cybercriminals take advantage of that uncertainty.
The new employee is not the problem.
The most dangerous employee is not careless. It is the one trying to be helpful.
If you run a business, you probably already know exactly who on your team would respond first.
The real gap is not training. It is the system.
The hidden risk of a rushed first day
Think back to a typical first day.
The laptop was not ready. Access was only partially set up. Email was still being created. Someone shared their login just to get things moving. A file was saved locally because the shared drive was not accessible. A personal phone was used to look up a client number because it was faster.
None of this feels risky in the moment. It feels resourceful. It feels like doing what needs to be done.
But during that first week, before everything is properly in place, several things quietly go wrong. Shared credentials create accounts no one tracks. Files end up outside your backup systems. Personal devices touch business data. No one explains what to do when something feels off.
The same Keepnet report found that new employees are 44 percent more susceptible to phishing than tenured staff.
That gap does not come from carelessness. It comes from chaos.
When onboarding is chaotic, cybersecurity becomes optional. That is the environment the phishing email walks into.
The attack did not create the vulnerability.
The first day did.
What a prepared first day actually looks like
Fixing this does not require a long security presentation on day one. It requires three things to be ready before the employee ever walks through the door.
First, access is configured, not improvised.
The laptop is ready. Credentials are created. Permissions are clearly defined. No borrowed logins. No temporary workarounds. No “we will sort that out later this week.”
Second, they know what a normal request looks like in your business.
This can be a ten minute conversation. Does the CEO ever email about payments? Does anyone? What should they do if something feels off? This is not formal training. It is basic orientation.
Third, they know exactly where to ask questions.
The employee who hesitated before clicking that email probably would have asked someone if they knew who to ask. Most first week mistakes happen quietly because new hires do not want to look inexperienced.
Give them a person. Give them a process.
Most security mistakes do not happen when someone ignores the rules. They happen when someone does not know the rules yet.
Why this matters for Vancouver small businesses
Maybe your onboarding is already solid. Maybe your team is small enough that first days feel personal instead of procedural.
But if you have ever had a new hire improvise their way through week one, or if you are planning to hire this spring, it is worth addressing before that Tuesday email arrives.
This is where proactive IT support and managed IT services make a measurable difference. When onboarding, access control, and security processes are handled intentionally, new employees are not forced to guess. Your business is not relying on luck.
Call us at 604-303-8600 or book a quick discovery call.
And if you know another Vancouver business owner who is about to hire, send this their way. The best time to close that door is before anyone walks through it.
