Carl B. Johnson
Author

Carl B. Johnson

vCISO and compliance expert.

https://carlbjohnson.com

posts

FBI Gmail Warning

FBI Gmail Warning: What You Need to Know in 2025

The FBI Gmail Alert That Should Have Changed How You Think About Email In late 2024, the FBI issued a stark warning: AI-driven phishing attacks targeting Gmail users had become so sophisticated that even technically savvy professionals were falling for them. The advisory wasn't hypothetical. It was based

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 7 min read
Computer Virus Prevention

Computer Virus Prevention: 9 Steps That Actually Work

The Virus That Cost a Hospital Chain $100 Million In 2017, the NotPetya wiper malware tore through networks worldwide in under 24 hours. Heritage Valley Health System lost access to its entire network — radiology, cardiology, even surgical systems went dark. Across the globe, Maersk lost nearly $300 million. Merck reported

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 7 min read
Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity in 2025: What Actually Works Now

The Breach That Changed How I Think About Cybersecurity In February 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the United States — was hit by a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacy operations, delayed patient care, and exposed the protected health information of roughly 100 million individuals. UnitedHealth

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 7 min read
Cyber Security

Cyber Security in 2025: What Actually Works Now

The Breach That Changed How I Think About Cyber Security In February 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the United States — was hit by a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacies, hospitals, and insurance claims across the country for weeks. UnitedHealth Group, its parent company, later

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 7 min read
computer security

Computer Security in 2025: What Actually Works Now

In February 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that cybercrime losses in 2024 exceeded $16 billion — a staggering jump from the $12.5 billion reported the year before. That number landed like a gut punch across the security community, but honestly, none of us were surprised.

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 7 min read
Security of Cyberspace

Security of Cyberspace: What Actually Works in 2025

A $3.1 Billion Problem Nobody Wants to Own In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported $12.5 billion in cybercrime losses — up from $10.3 billion the year before. Investment fraud alone accounted for $4.57 billion. These aren't abstract numbers. They

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 6 min read
cybersecurity tips

Cybersecurity Tips That Actually Work in 2025

The Breach That Started With a Single Password In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that a Russian threat actor group known as Midnight Blizzard accessed corporate email accounts — including those of senior leadership — using nothing more than a password spray attack against a legacy test account that lacked multi-factor authentication. No

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 7 min read
Security for System

Security for System Environments: A 2025 Field Guide

The Breach That Started With a Single Unpatched System In February 2024, UnitedHealth Group's subsidiary Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted healthcare payment processing across the United States for weeks. The attackers gained access through a Citrix remote access portal that lacked multi-factor authentication. One system.

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 7 min read
What Is Cybersecurity

What Is Cybersecurity? A Practitioner's Real-World Guide

A $4.88 Million Question Nobody Asks Until It's Too Late In May 2023, the city of Dallas, Texas got hit with Royal ransomware. Emergency services disrupted. Court systems offline. Weeks of recovery. The estimated cost ran into tens of millions. And the entry point? A service account

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 7 min read
IT Security

IT Security in 2025: What Actually Works Now

In March 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that cybercrime losses in the United States exceeded $16.6 billion in 2024 — a 33% increase over the prior year. That number didn't come from sophisticated nation-state attacks alone. It came from basic IT security failures:

Carl B. Johnson Oct 26, 2025 7 min read