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Computer Security News and Insights

Spear Phishing

What Is Spear Phishing? The Targeted Attack Behind Major Breaches

A Single Email Cost This Company $100 Million In 2015, Ubiquiti Networks disclosed that threat actors used spear phishing emails to impersonate executives and trick finance staff into wiring $46.7 million to overseas accounts. They eventually recovered some funds, but the damage was done. That wasn't a

Carl B. Johnson Mar 20, 2019 8 min read
Fake Identity Website

Fake Identity Website Threats: How to Spot and Stop Them

A Single Fake Identity Website Took Down a $200M Company's Reputation In 2023, the FBI's IC3 received over 880,000 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion — and identity-related fraud was the single fastest-growing category. A huge chunk of that fraud starts at a fake

Carl B. Johnson Mar 20, 2019 7 min read
Fake Mailer

Fake Mailer Attacks: How Threat Actors Spoof Email

In March 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that business email compromise — much of it powered by spoofed sender addresses — cost victims over $2.9 billion in a single year. Behind many of those attacks sits a deceptively simple weapon: a fake mailer. These tools let

Carl B. Johnson Mar 10, 2019 7 min read
FBI Gmail

FBI Gmail Warnings: What Every Organization Must Do Now

The FBI Gmail Alert That Should Have Your Full Attention In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over 298,000 phishing complaints — and Gmail accounts were among the most targeted. The FBI has repeatedly issued warnings about sophisticated phishing campaigns targeting Gmail users, including AI-generated

Carl B. Johnson Mar 07, 2019 7 min read
Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity in 2026: What Actually Works Now

The Breach That Changed How I Think About Cybersecurity In February 2024, Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted insurance claims processing for hospitals and pharmacies across the United States. UnitedHealth Group confirmed the breach affected approximately 100 million individuals — making it one of the largest healthcare data breaches

Carl B. Johnson Feb 25, 2019 6 min read
cyber security

Cyber Security in 2026: What Actually Works Now

In March 2024, Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted insurance claims processing for nearly every hospital and pharmacy in the United States. The root cause? Stolen credentials on a system without multi-factor authentication. One overlooked gap in cyber security brought a $32 billion company to its knees and

Carl B. Johnson Feb 25, 2019 6 min read
computer security

Computer Security in 2026: What Actually Works Now

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

Carl B. Johnson Feb 25, 2019 7 min read
Security of Cyberspace

Security of Cyberspace: What Actually Works in 2026

In February 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the United States — suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacy operations, delayed insurance claims, and exposed the protected health information of roughly 100 million people. One set of stolen credentials. No multi-factor authentication on a critical system.

Carl B. Johnson Feb 25, 2019 6 min read
Cybersecurity Tips

Cybersecurity Tips That Actually Stop Breaches in 2026

In 2024, the average cost of a data breach hit $4.88 million globally, according to IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report. That number didn't come from sophisticated nation-state attacks or exotic zero-days. Most of those breaches started with stolen credentials, a phishing email, or

Carl B. Johnson Feb 25, 2019 6 min read
Security for System Administrators

Security for System Administrators: A 2026 Field Guide

The Breach That Started With a Single Unpatched Server In 2023, the MOVEit Transfer vulnerability (CVE-2023-34362) let the Cl0p ransomware gang compromise thousands of organizations worldwide — including federal agencies and major financial institutions. The root cause wasn't exotic malware or a sophisticated zero-day chain. It was a known

Carl B. Johnson Feb 25, 2019 7 min read