Foundational principles and practices for protecting computers, devices, and data from unauthorized access, malware, and exploitation. Covers endpoint protection, password management, encryption, software updates, and safe computing habits for everyday users.
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In 2023, MGM Resorts lost roughly $100 million after a social engineering phone call — a single conversation — gave threat actors the foothold they needed to deploy ransomware across the entire enterprise. That incident didn't start with a zero-day exploit or some nation-state weapon. It started with a help
In 2023, MGM Resorts lost roughly $100 million from a single social engineering phone call. A threat actor called the help desk, impersonated an employee found on LinkedIn, and within minutes had the credentials needed to deploy ransomware across the entire enterprise. That's not a firewall failure. That&
In February 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that cybercrime losses in 2024 exceeded $16 billion — a staggering jump from the $12.5 billion reported the year before. That number landed like a gut punch across the security community, but honestly, none of us were surprised.
In February 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the United States — was hit by a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacy operations, delayed patient care, and potentially exposed the protected health information of tens of millions of Americans. The root cause? Compromised credentials on a remote
In March 2022, Okta confirmed that the Lapsus$ threat actor group had accessed an internal support engineer's laptop, potentially affecting hundreds of downstream customers. A few weeks before that, the same group hit Nvidia, Samsung, and Microsoft. These weren't obscure targets. These were companies with massive
The Colonial Pipeline Hack Changed the Conversation On May 7, 2021, a single compromised password shut down the largest fuel pipeline in the United States. Colonial Pipeline paid a $4.4 million ransom in Bitcoin to the DarkSide ransomware group. Gas stations across the Southeast ran dry. Panic buying erupted.
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.
