Computer Security News and Insights
One Click Cost MGM Resorts $100 Million In September 2023, a threat actor called Scattered Spider called the MGM Resorts help desk, impersonated an employee found on LinkedIn, and convinced IT staff to reset credentials. The result: ten days of operational chaos, encrypted systems, and an estimated $100 million in
A $1.3 Million Fine for Skipping the Basics In 2023, the FTC settled with Drizly and its CEO after a data breach exposed roughly 2.5 million customer records. The root cause? The company failed to implement basic security measures — including adequate employee security training. The FTC's
The Breach That Started With a Single Password In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor social-engineered a help desk employee with a ten-minute phone call. The attackers didn't exploit some exotic zero-day vulnerability. They used basic social engineering — information scraped from LinkedIn
A Single Phone Took Down an Entire Pipeline In 2021, a compromised password — likely harvested from a mobile device or reused across platforms — gave threat actors access to Colonial Pipeline's VPN. The result: fuel shortages across the Eastern United States, a $4.4 million ransom payment, and a
In March 2024, a finance employee at a Hong Kong multinational wired $25 million to threat actors after clicking a single link in what appeared to be a routine email from the company's CFO. That link led to a deepfake video call — but it started with something deceptively
When Colonial Pipeline paid $4.4 million in ransom after a single compromised password shut down fuel delivery across the Eastern Seaboard, it wasn't a failure of exotic technology. It was a failure of fundamentals — the exact fundamentals the NIST Cybersecurity Framework was designed to address. I'
A Single Email Cost One Company $100 Million In 2019, Toyota Boshoku Corporation lost $37 million in a single business email compromise attack. The attacker didn't blast out a million generic emails. They researched one finance executive, crafted one convincing message, and walked away with the money. That&
The IRS Call That Cost a Hospital $1.5 Million A CFO at a mid-sized hospital picked up the phone. The caller ID showed the IRS main line. The voice on the other end was professional, urgent, and specific — citing the organization's actual EIN and a pending audit.
The Threat Already Inside Your Network In 2023, Tesla disclosed that two former employees had leaked the personal data of more than 75,000 workers to a German news outlet. It wasn't a sophisticated hack. It wasn't a nation-state threat actor. It was people who already
A Ransomware Attack Every 11 Seconds — and Most Victims Had No Plan When Colonial Pipeline got hit in May 2021, the company paid a $4.4 million ransom within hours. Their CEO later told a Senate committee that the decision was made under extreme pressure, without a well-rehearsed playbook. If
