Most of us like to think we would recognise a cyber scam when we saw one.
We know not to open suspicious attachments. We have heard the warnings about unexpected links, urgent payment requests and messages asking us to confirm our passwords.
The problem is that modern cyberattacks rarely arrive looking obviously suspicious.
They are designed to blend into an ordinary working day.
They appear while you are preparing for a meeting, responding to customers, checking emails between appointments or trying to finish several jobs at once.
The message may look legitimate. The timing may make sense. The request might feel routine.
And sometimes, that is all a cybercriminal needs.
This was one of the strongest lessons from our recent Ballarat Cyber Sip event, where we were honoured to welcome Paul Barge from Kaseya as a guest speaker.
Paul has spent decades working in technology, including 15 years with Microsoft, and has focused closely on cybersecurity for the past several years. His presentation gave the Ballarat business community a practical look at how cybercrime is changing and why the human side of security matters so much.
It was a fantastic session, filled with useful information, real examples and a good dose of humour.
One story in particular stayed with us.
Despite his years of experience, Paul once clicked a malicious link himself.
It can happen to people who know better
Paul received an email from what appeared to be a potential client.
It came from a legitimate email address and looked convincing. At the time, he was handling several things at once, as most of us do during a normal working day.
He clicked the link.
The page looked like a Microsoft website and began asking him to enter information. That was the point when he realised something was wrong.
Fortunately, he recognised the warning signs before providing the requested details. He was able to get technical support involved quickly and check that nothing had been compromised.
Paul has worked in technology for around 15 years.
He understands cybersecurity. He knows what phishing looks like and what cybercriminals are trying to achieve.
Yet the message still got his attention at the wrong moment.
That is what made his story so valuable.
It challenged the idea that people only fall for scams because they are careless, poorly trained or unfamiliar with technology.
Sometimes, people click because the message is well made and arrives while their attention is somewhere else.
Cyberattacks are designed for real working conditions
A lot of cybersecurity advice assumes people are reading every message slowly and carefully.
That is not how most workplaces operate.
People are moving between tasks. Phones are ringing. Customers are waiting. Staff are asking questions. Someone is trying to approve an invoice before heading into another meeting.
Cybercriminals understand this.
They do not need to create a message that would survive an hour of careful analysis. They need one that looks believable for the few seconds someone gives it.
Urgency is often used to shorten that window even further.
A message might claim that an account is about to be suspended, an invoice is overdue or a delivery cannot be completed until payment details are confirmed.
Paul shared his own experience of receiving a fraudulent message about road tolls after his wallet had recently been stolen. Because he was already updating his accounts and direct debits, the request felt plausible.
He entered his new payment details.
Within around half an hour, multiple laptops had reportedly been purchased using his information.
The scam worked because it arrived at a moment when the story made sense.
That is an important reminder for every business. Context can make even a cautious person vulnerable.
The old signs are becoming less useful
Years ago, scam emails were often easy to spot.
The spelling was poor. The grammar was awkward. The sender claimed to be royalty from a country you had no connection with.
Those scams still exist, but they are no longer the standard businesses should prepare for.
Artificial intelligence has made it far easier for criminals to produce polished messages quickly. They can imitate the language used by well-known companies, create convincing websites and tailor messages to particular industries or individuals.
A scam targeting a medical practice may use the language of patient records or Medicare.
One aimed at an accountant may refer to tax documents, payroll or client payments.
A message sent to a manufacturer could look like a supplier notice, shipping update or equipment invoice.
The better criminals understand the environment, the less unusual the message appears.
This is why telling staff to simply “look for spelling mistakes” is no longer enough.
A well-written email can still be fraudulent.
A professional-looking website can still be designed to steal information.
Even an email from a familiar address may not be genuine if that person’s account has already been compromised.
Email is only part of the problem
Paul’s presentation also showed how much further these attacks are beginning to go.
Cybercriminals can now imitate voices using very short audio samples. Deepfake video can make a person appear to say or do something that never happened.
He shared an example in which an employee joined what appeared to be a genuine online meeting with colleagues and the company’s chief financial officer.
The people on screen looked and sounded convincing.
At the end of the meeting, the employee was instructed to transfer a significant amount of money and followed the request.
The call was fake.
While an incident of that scale may feel distant from the average regional business, the lesson is highly relevant.
Seeing or hearing someone is no longer enough to prove that a request is genuine.
If a payment request is unusual, urgent or involves changed banking details, businesses need another way to verify it.
That may mean calling the person using a known phone number, requiring a second staff member to approve the transaction or agreeing on an internal verification process beforehand.
It might feel inconvenient in the moment.
It is far less inconvenient than trying to recover money after it has been transferred to a criminal.
The answer is not to blame your staff
It is common to hear people described as the weakest link in cybersecurity.
There is some truth behind the phrase because many successful attacks begin with human action. Someone clicks a link, shares information or approves a request.
But treating employees as the problem can make the business less secure.
When someone realises they may have made a mistake, the first few minutes can be critical.
If they feel embarrassed or afraid of being blamed, they may hesitate to report it. They might close the browser, delete the message and hope nothing happens.
Meanwhile, the attacker may still be active.
The better approach is to build a culture where employees know they should speak up immediately.
Reporting a suspicious click should be treated in the same way as reporting smoke in a building. The priority is finding out what happened and containing the issue, not deciding who deserves criticism.
Paul’s own story demonstrates why this matters.
Experienced people make mistakes. Busy people make mistakes. Leaders make mistakes.
A strong security culture plans for that reality.
Training should prepare people, not frighten them
Cybersecurity awareness training is most effective when it reflects the situations people actually encounter.
That means showing employees what current scams look like and helping them practise what to do when something feels wrong.
Phishing simulations can be useful here.
A carefully managed simulation sends staff a safe version of the types of emails criminals use. It allows the business to see how people respond without waiting for a real attack.
The results can reveal where more education is needed.
Some employees may be confident identifying suspicious senders but struggle with messages that appear to come from Microsoft or Australia Post.
Others may recognise a phishing email but still be unsure how to report it.
The purpose should not be to publicly catch people out or make them feel foolish.
It should be to improve awareness and start useful conversations.
Training also needs to happen regularly.
One annual session cannot prepare staff for a threat environment that continues to change throughout the year.
Short, practical reminders are often more useful than overwhelming people with technical information.
Build checks into the way work gets done
Training helps people recognise risk, but businesses should not rely entirely on individual judgement.
Good systems create another layer of protection.
Multifactor authentication can prevent a stolen password from giving someone immediate access to an account.
Email security tools can identify suspicious messages before they reach a user.
Password managers reduce the temptation to use the same password across several services.
Clear payment procedures can stop fraudulent bank detail changes from being approved through email alone.
The aim is not to remove all human decision-making. It is to avoid placing the entire weight of the organisation’s security on one person making the right choice during a busy moment.
The more checks built into everyday processes, the less likely one click is to become a major incident.
Make reporting simple
Employees also need to know exactly what to do when something happens.
Who should they contact?
Should they disconnect the device?
Should they forward the email or leave it untouched?
What happens outside normal business hours?
Vague instructions such as “tell IT” are not always helpful, particularly when a business does not have an internal IT team.
A clear reporting process gives people confidence to act quickly.
It should be easy to find, easy to understand and free from unnecessary steps.
The message to staff should be simple:
If something feels wrong, report it straight away. You will not get in trouble for asking.
That approach may prevent a small mistake from growing into a business-wide disruption.
Why this matters to us
At eManaged, we spend a great deal of time helping businesses put the right technology in place.
But technology is only part of cybersecurity.
People still make decisions, receive messages and respond to requests throughout the working day. Those moments are where many attacks begin.
That is why Paul Barge’s presentation at our Ballarat Cyber Sip event was so important.
We were incredibly grateful to have him there and appreciated the honesty with which he shared his own experience. It made the issue relatable without downplaying how serious the consequences can be.
His message was not that people cannot be trusted.
It was that people are human.
They get busy. They get distracted. They respond to situations that seem completely reasonable at the time.
Good cybersecurity recognises this and provides training, processes and safeguards that support people rather than simply expecting them to be perfect.
At eManaged, we help organisations strengthen that human layer through practical staff training, phishing simulations, dark-web monitoring and clearly defined security processes.
Because cybercriminals do not need your employees to be careless.
Sometimes, they only need to catch a good employee during a very busy day.
Talk to eManaged about helping your team recognise cyber threats and respond quickly when something does not look right.