Carl B. Johnson
Author

Carl B. Johnson

vCISO and compliance expert.

https://carlbjohnson.com

posts

Cybersecurity Culture

Building a Cybersecurity Culture That Actually Works

In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor called Scattered Spider social-engineered their way past the help desk with a single phone call. The attacker didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability. They didn't write custom malware. They called an employee, pretended to

Carl B. Johnson Mar 29, 2025 7 min read
Security Awareness Metrics

Security Awareness Metrics That Actually Prove ROI

In 2024, IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report pegged the global average breach cost at $4.88 million — the highest ever recorded. That same report found that organizations with security awareness training programs saved an average of $258,629 per breach compared to those without. Yet when

Carl B. Johnson Mar 29, 2025 8 min read
Security Awareness Training

How to Measure Security Awareness Training Effectively

In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor social-engineered the company's IT help desk with a single phone call. The attackers didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability. They exploited a person. That incident should make every security leader ask a blunt question:

Carl B. Johnson Mar 29, 2025 7 min read
Cybersecurity Training ROI

Cybersecurity Training ROI: The Numbers That Matter

A $4.88 Million Problem With a Training-Shaped Solution IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report pegged the global average breach cost at $4.88 million — the highest figure ever recorded. Meanwhile, the average investment in security awareness training per employee sits somewhere between $15 and $50

Carl B. Johnson Mar 25, 2025 7 min read
Cyber Hygiene

Cyber Hygiene Definition: What It Really Means in 2025

In February 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the U.S. — got hit with a ransomware attack that disrupted claims processing for weeks and exposed data on roughly 100 million individuals. The root cause? Compromised credentials on a system that lacked multi-factor authentication. That'

Carl B. Johnson Mar 25, 2025 7 min read
Cyber Hygiene Checklist

Cyber Hygiene Checklist: 12 Steps That Actually Work

The Breach That Started With a Reused Password In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that a Russian threat actor group known as Midnight Blizzard compromised executive email accounts — not through some exotic zero-day, but by password spraying a legacy test account that lacked multi-factor authentication. One overlooked account. No MFA. That&

Carl B. Johnson Mar 17, 2025 7 min read
Cybersecurity for Executives

Cybersecurity for Executives: What Boards Must Know

The CEO Who Clicked Reply In 2023, the SEC charged SolarWinds' CISO Timothy Brown for misleading investors about the company's cybersecurity practices. That action sent a shockwave through every C-suite in America. Suddenly, cybersecurity wasn't just an IT issue — it was a personal liability issue.

Carl B. Johnson Mar 17, 2025 7 min read
CEO Fraud

CEO Fraud Email Scam: How Attackers Steal Millions

A Single Email Cost This Company $37 Million In 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that Business Email Compromise — the category that includes every CEO fraud email scam — generated adjusted losses exceeding $2.9 billion in a single year. That number has held steady as one

Carl B. Johnson Mar 05, 2025 7 min read