Tag

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 Manager Benefits

Password Manager Benefits That Stop 80% of Breaches

One Reused Password Cost This Company $4.6 Billion In 2017, a single set of reused credentials let threat actors walk into Equifax's systems and expose 147 million records. The total cost exceeded $4.6 billion when you factor in the FTC settlement, lawsuits, and remediation. One password.

Carl B. Johnson Mar 29, 2026 5 min read
Phish Setlist

Phish Setlist for Security: Building Your Attack Plan

One Band's Name Became Cybersecurity's Favorite Metaphor In 2024, the FBI's IC3 report documented over 298,000 phishing complaints — making it the most reported cybercrime category for the fifth consecutive year. And yet, most organizations still run phishing simulations like they're checking

Carl B. Johnson Jan 18, 2026 8 min read
Gmail Phishing Attacks

Gmail Sophisticated Attacks: FBI Phishing Warnings for 2025

The FBI Didn't Issue Gmail Warnings for Fun In late 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) flagged a sharp escalation in sophisticated phishing attacks targeting Gmail users — attacks so convincing that even security-savvy professionals were getting fooled. By mid-2025, the bureau doubled down, warning

Carl B. Johnson Dec 27, 2025 7 min read
Fake Mail

Fake Mail: How to Spot It Before It Costs You

In May 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that business email compromise — a sophisticated form of fake mail — accounted for over $2.9 billion in adjusted losses in 2023 alone. That number has only grown. I've personally worked cases where a single convincing email

Carl B. Johnson Dec 27, 2025 7 min read
Vishing

FBI Warning on Vishing and Smishing: What to Do Now

The Phone Call That Cost One Company $23 Million In early 2024, a finance worker at engineering firm Arup was tricked into wiring $25 million to threat actors after a deepfake video call that impersonated senior leadership. That incident made headlines worldwide. But for every deepfake video heist, there are

Carl B. Johnson Dec 27, 2025 7 min read
Phishing Awareness

How to Spot Phishing Emails: 9 Red Flags to Catch Now

The Email That Cost MGM Resorts $100 Million In September 2023, a single social engineering attack — starting with a phone call but rooted in the same deception principles as phishing emails — led to a breach at MGM Resorts that cost the company over $100 million. The threat actors behind the

Carl B. Johnson Dec 13, 2025 7 min read
Fake Emails

Fake Emails: How to Spot Them Before They Cost You

In May 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that business email compromise — a category built almost entirely on fake emails — accounted for over $2.9 billion in adjusted losses in a single year. That figure dwarfed ransomware losses by a factor of nearly 50. And those

Carl B. Johnson Dec 13, 2025 7 min read
Removed Legitimate Software

Removed Legitimate Software: How Attackers Exploit Trust

The Trojan Horse You Already Installed In March 2024, a lone developer named Andres Freund noticed something odd: SSH connections were taking 500 milliseconds too long. That curiosity uncovered the XZ Utils backdoor — a sophisticated supply chain attack where a threat actor had spent two years building trust as a

Carl B. Johnson Dec 13, 2025 6 min read
Fake Mailer

Fake Mailer Attacks: How Threat Actors Spoof Email

In January 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that business email compromise — much of it powered by spoofed sender addresses — cost American organizations over $2.9 billion in 2023 alone. Behind a huge share of those losses sits a deceptively simple tool: the fake mailer. These

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 6 min read