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Phishing Awareness Training

Phishing Awareness Training: What Actually Works in 2025

In March 2025, a mid-size logistics company in the Midwest lost $2.3 million after a single employee clicked a fake DocuSign link. The attacker harvested credentials, pivoted into the company's financial systems, and initiated wire transfers over a long weekend. The employee had never received phishing awareness

Carl B. Johnson Sep 25, 2025 8 min read
phishing training for employees

Phishing Training for Employees: What Actually Works

A Single Click Cost MGM Resorts $100 Million In September 2023, a threat actor called Scattered Spider social-engineered an MGM Resorts help desk employee with a phone call. That single interaction — not a sophisticated zero-day exploit, not a nation-state supply chain attack — led to a ransomware incident that cost the

Carl B. Johnson Sep 25, 2025 7 min read
Phishing Email

How to Recognize a Phishing Email Before You Click

The Email That Cost One Company $37 Million In 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that phishing and its variants remained the number one reported cybercrime by volume, with over 298,000 complaints in a single year. But here's the part that should keep

Carl B. Johnson Sep 25, 2025 8 min read
Phishing Attack Examples

Phishing Attack Examples: 7 Real Breaches That Cost Millions

In March 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that phishing remained the number one reported cybercrime for the fifth consecutive year. That stat alone should tell you everything about where threat actors are focusing their energy. But raw numbers don't teach your employees what

Carl B. Johnson Sep 22, 2025 7 min read
Phishing

What Is Phishing? A Security Pro's Real-World Guide

The Attack That Cost MGM Resorts $100 Million Started With a Phone Call In September 2023, a threat actor called the MGM Resorts IT help desk, impersonated an employee they found on LinkedIn, and talked their way into a password reset. Within hours, the attackers had deployed ransomware across MGM&

Carl B. Johnson Sep 22, 2025 7 min read
Spear Phishing vs Phishing

Spear Phishing vs Phishing: What Actually Gets People

A $37 Million Wire Transfer Started with One Email In 2024, a finance employee at a multinational firm joined what appeared to be a legitimate video call with the company's CFO. It was a deepfake. The attackers had spent weeks gathering intelligence — org charts, communication styles, ongoing projects

Carl B. Johnson Sep 22, 2025 7 min read
Phishing Prevention

How to Avoid Phishing Attacks: A 2025 Survival Guide

In May 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that phishing and its variants remained the number-one reported cybercrime for the fifth consecutive year, with losses tied to business email compromise alone exceeding $2.9 billion annually in recent reports. I've spent over two decades

Carl B. Johnson Sep 22, 2025 7 min read
Phishing Awareness Program

Phishing Awareness Program: Build One That Works

In March 2025, a mid-size healthcare provider in the Midwest lost 1.4 million patient records because one employee in accounts payable clicked a link in a fake DocuSign email. The organization had antivirus software, a firewall, and an email gateway. What they didn't have was a phishing

Carl B. Johnson Sep 22, 2025 7 min read