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Credential Theft Prevention

Addresses the tactics attackers use to steal login credentials and the countermeasures organizations can deploy. Topics include multi-factor authentication, credential monitoring, dark web surveillance, secure authentication protocols, and employee awareness training.

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Password Security Best Practices

Password Security Best Practices That Actually Work

The 61% Problem You're Probably Ignoring The 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that 61% of all breaches involved credential data. Not sophisticated zero-day exploits. Not nation-state malware. Stolen, weak, or reused passwords. That single statistic should reshape how your organization thinks about password security best practices

Carl B. Johnson Feb 24, 2022 6 min read
Password Manager Benefits

Password Manager Benefits That Stop 80% of Breaches

The Breach That Started With "Company2019!" In January 2021, a security researcher discovered that a SolarWinds intern had used the password "solarwinds123" on a critical internal server. That detail, revealed during congressional hearings, became one of the most embarrassing footnotes in what was already one of

Carl B. Johnson Feb 15, 2022 7 min read
CEO Fraud Email Scam

CEO Fraud Email Scam: How to Stop It Cold

In March 2021, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that business email compromise — the category that includes every CEO fraud email scam — generated $1.8 billion in reported losses in 2020 alone. That made it the single most financially damaging cybercrime category in the entire IC3 report,

Carl B. Johnson Oct 01, 2021 7 min read
Phishing Awareness

How to Spot a Phishing Email Before It Costs You

In July 2021, a single phishing email gave attackers access to an employee's credentials at a Florida managed service provider, which cascaded into the massive Kaseya VSA ransomware attack affecting up to 1,500 businesses worldwide. One click. One employee who didn't know how to spot

Carl B. Johnson Aug 31, 2021 8 min read
Phish Setlist

Phish Setlist for Security: Building Your Attack Plan

Every Great Attack Starts With a Setlist In July 2021, a single phishing email gave a threat actor access to credentials at a Florida IT management firm, triggering the Kaseya VSA ransomware attack that cascaded to over 1,500 businesses worldwide. One click. One employee. One email that someone didn&

Carl B. Johnson Aug 31, 2021 7 min read
Spoofing

What Is Spoofing? The Attack Behind Most Breaches

In July 2020, attackers spoofed internal Twitter tools to hijack 130 high-profile accounts — including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple — and ran a Bitcoin scam that netted over $100,000 in hours. The attack didn't rely on some exotic zero-day exploit. It relied on spoofing: making something fake

Carl B. Johnson Aug 08, 2021 7 min read
AI Phishing Attacks

Gmail Users Warned About Sophisticated AI-Driven Phishing

Last month, a finance director at a mid-sized logistics company received a Gmail message that looked exactly like a Google Workspace security alert. The branding was pixel-perfect. The language was flawless. The sender address passed a casual glance test. She clicked, entered her credentials, and within 90 minutes a threat

Carl B. Johnson Jul 29, 2021 7 min read
Spear Phishing vs Phishing

Spear Phishing vs Phishing: What Actually Gets You Hacked

In 2020, Twitter lost control of 130 high-profile accounts — including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple — because a 17-year-old used spear phishing to trick a handful of Twitter employees into handing over internal credentials. The attackers didn't blast a million inboxes with a generic "Your account has

Carl B. Johnson May 04, 2021 6 min read