Computer Security News and Insights
In March 2021, a UK-based financial firm was fined after a visitor photographed sensitive client data sitting on an employee's desk — in plain sight, during a routine office tour. No hacking tools. No zero-day exploit. Just a smartphone camera and a messy workstation. That's the reality
The Breach That Started with a Single Employee In May 2021, a single compromised password shut down Colonial Pipeline and triggered fuel shortages across the Eastern United States. The credential was tied to a legacy VPN account that lacked multi-factor authentication. One employee. One password. $4.4 million in ransom
A $4.24 Million Wake-Up Call IBM's 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report found the average breach now costs $4.24 million — the highest in the report's 17-year history. But here's the number that keeps me up at night: 85% of breaches involved
In 2020, a mid-sized healthcare provider invested $250,000 in a security awareness program. Twelve months later, the CISO couldn't answer one question from the board: "Is it working?" No baseline measurements. No tracking. No defensible data. That CISO is now updating a résumé. I'
In March 2021, a single employee at a water treatment plant in Oldsmar, Florida clicked through a remote access session that could have poisoned a city's water supply. The attacker gained entry through a shared TeamViewer password — no phishing email required. The incident raised a question that boardrooms
A $150 Investment vs. a $4.24 Million Breach In March 2021, CNA Financial — one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. — paid a reported $40 million ransom after a ransomware attack that started with a single employee interaction. That's not a typo. Forty million dollars
In March 2021, a single compromised password led to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack that shut down fuel delivery across the U.S. East Coast. The account didn't even have multi-factor authentication enabled. That's not a sophisticated nation-state exploit — that's a basic cyber hygiene
When Colonial Pipeline paid $4.4 million in ransom in May 2021, investigators traced the initial compromise back to a single compromised VPN credential — one that didn't have multi-factor authentication enabled. That's not a sophisticated nation-state exploit. That's a basic hygiene failure. And it
When Colonial Pipeline's CEO Joseph Blount testified before the Senate in June 2021, he admitted the company paid $4.4 million in ransom after a single compromised password shut down the largest fuel pipeline in the United States. No multi-factor authentication. No segmentation between IT and operational technology.
The SolarWinds Wake-Up Call for Every Boardroom When the SolarWinds breach came to light in December 2020, it didn't just compromise 18,000 organizations including multiple U.S. federal agencies. It put a spotlight on something security professionals have been shouting about for years: boards of directors are
