Computer Security News and Insights
In March 2024, a threat actor compromised a senior executive's email at a mid-size financial firm. The attacker didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability or deploy sophisticated malware. They simply logged in with a stolen password purchased on a dark web marketplace for less than ten dollars.
The Phishing Email That Came From PayPal's Own Servers In late 2024, security researchers at Avanan documented a campaign where threat actors sent phishing invoices through PayPal's actual invoicing system — meaning the emails passed SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks flawlessly. The same tactic has since merged
In early 2024, a breach at Change Healthcare — a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group — crippled pharmacies and hospitals across the United States for weeks. The attack didn't start at a hospital. It started at a third party vendor. A single set of compromised credentials on a system without multi-factor
A $4.88 Million Average — and a Framework Most Organizations Ignore IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report pegged the global average at $4.88 million per incident. That's a record. Yet when I ask mid-size companies whether they've implemented any NIST standards,
In 2022, a former employee at Cash App's parent company, Block, downloaded reports containing the personal information of 8.2 million customers — months after they'd left the company. Their access had never been revoked. That single oversight triggered SEC filings, lawsuits, and reputational damage that took
The Receptionist Who Handed Over the Keys to the Kingdom In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor called the help desk, impersonated an employee found on LinkedIn, and convinced a staff member to reset credentials. No code was written. No zero-day exploit was deployed.
A 60% Click Rate That Should Have Been a Wake-Up Call I ran a phishing simulation training exercise for a mid-size logistics company last year. The first campaign used a fake Microsoft 365 password reset email — nothing fancy, no zero-day exploit, just a convincing lure. Sixty percent of employees clicked.
The Breach That Didn't Have to Cost $350 Million When Equifax disclosed its 2017 breach affecting 147 million people, the eventual settlement topped $700 million. But here's what most people forget: the vulnerability that attackers exploited had a patch available months before the breach. Equifax didn&
The Email That Cost One Company $121 Million In 2019, a Lithuanian national named Evaldas Rimasauskas pleaded guilty to stealing over $121 million from Google and Facebook using nothing more than fake invoices and spoofed email addresses. No zero-day exploits. No sophisticated malware. Just phishing emails that looked like they
In February 2024, Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacy operations across the entire United States for weeks. UnitedHealth Group eventually disclosed the breach may have affected up to 100 million individuals. If you still think the word "cyber" is just a vague buzzword tossed around
