Get practical computer security advice for individuals and organizations looking to strengthen their defenses. These articles deliver actionable tips on password hygiene, software updates, safe browsing habits, and everyday practices that reduce your exposure to cyber threats.
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The Breach That Started With a Single Password In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor called Scattered Spider social-engineered their way past a help desk using nothing more than a phone call and a LinkedIn profile. No zero-day exploit. No advanced malware. Just a
The Breach That Started With a Single Reused Password In 2024, Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacy operations across the entire United States. The root cause? Compromised credentials on a remote access system that lacked multi-factor authentication. One account. No MFA. Billions of dollars in damage. I&
A school district in Arizona lost $3.5 million in January 2024 after a single employee followed spoofed wire transfer instructions. The attacker didn't exploit a software vulnerability. They exploited trust. That incident captures why most computer security advice fails — it focuses on tools while ignoring the human
A school district in Arizona lost $3.5 million in January 2024 after a single employee followed a spoofed email's wire transfer instructions. No malware. No sophisticated zero-day exploit. Just one person who didn't recognize a social engineering attack. That's why most computer security
In 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 859,000 complaints with losses exceeding $16.6 billion — a 33% increase from the year before. That number isn't slowing down in 2026. I've spent years watching organizations and individuals make the same preventable
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
In March 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that Americans lost over $16 billion to cybercrime in 2024 — a 33% increase from the prior year. That number isn't abstract. It represents real people and real businesses that thought their defenses were good enough. I&
The Breach That Started With a Single Reused Password In January 2024, a midsize accounting firm lost access to every client file it had. A single employee reused their corporate email password on a third-party scheduling app. That app got breached. Within 48 hours, a threat actor used those stolen
