Every spring and summer, businesses welcome a new wave of employees, interns, and recent graduates stepping into their first roles. For organizations, it's onboarding season. For cybercriminals, it's opportunity season.
According to Keepnet Lab’s 2025 New Hires Phishing Susceptibility Report, new hires are 45% more likely to engage in CEO impersonation emails. But why? Because attackers don’t go after your most seasoned people. They target those who are still learning the ropes.
New hires are learning everything at once. They don’t know what a typical request looks like, how people normally communicate, and they haven’t had time to build instincts. Attackers take advantage of that.
The Gap in Onboarding
Most businesses view onboarding as an operational process focused on training, productivity, and helping employees settle into their new roles. But a critical factor often overlooked is security.
Think back to a typical first day.
Maybe their laptop wasn't fully configured, access permissions were still being finalized, their email hadn’t been set up, they borrowed someone else’s login to check something, they saved a file locally because they couldn’t access the shared drive, or they used their personal phone to look up a client number.
None of these actions felt risky. They were doing what needed to be done to get through a hectic first day, but a few things happened quietly in the background. Shared credentials create accounts nobody tracks, files end up outside of your backup systems, a personal device touches your business data, and no one explains what to do if something feels off.
The reality is that most security incidents don't start with someone intentionally breaking the rules. They happen because people don't know the rules yet.
According to the same Keepnet Report as earlier, 44% of new employees are more susceptible to phishing than tenured staff. Here’s the thing: This gap doesn’t come from carelessness. It comes from the chaos of onboarding when security becomes optional.
What Secure Onboarding Looks Like
Improving onboarding security doesn't require overwhelming new hires with technical training on day one. It starts with creating a structured process that supports both productivity and security.
1. Prepare Technology Before Day One
Employees should arrive with:
- Fully configured devices
- Individual user credentials
- Appropriate access permissions
- Clear guidance on approved systems and tools
Eliminating temporary workarounds reduces confusion and improves accountability from the start.
2. Define What "Normal" Looks Like
New hires should understand:
- How leadership typically communicates
- How approvals are handled
- Which requests require verification
- Who to contact when something seems unusual
Even a brief conversation about common business processes can help employees recognize suspicious requests before they become costly mistakes.
3. Introduce Security Awareness Early
Security training shouldn't wait for an annual compliance review.
New employees should receive practical guidance on recognizing phishing attempts, protecting credentials, handling sensitive information, and reporting suspicious activity. The goal isn't to overwhelm them, it's to give them enough context to make informed decisions.
4. Make It Easy to Ask Questions
Many first-week mistakes happen quietly because employees don't want to appear inexperienced.
Providing a designated contact person or support channel encourages employees to verify requests before acting. When employees feel comfortable asking questions, they're far more likely to catch suspicious activity before it becomes a larger problem.
Strong Onboarding Strengthens More Than Security
Secure onboarding isn't just about preventing cyberattacks. It improves operational consistency, reduces confusion, strengthens accountability, and helps employees become productive more quickly.
Maybe your onboarding is already solid. Maybe your team is small enough that the first days feel more personal rather than procedural. But if you’ve ever had a new hire improvise their way through week one, or if you’re planning to bring someone on this spring, it’s worth a conversation.
Call us at 870-933-2583 or book a quick discovery call.
And if you know another business owner who’s about to hire, send this their way. The best time to close that door is before anyone walks through it.
