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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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VPN Best Practices

VPN Best Practices: 9 Rules That Actually Stop Breaches

In May 2024, Check Point disclosed that threat actors were actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in its VPN products — CVE-2024-24919 — to harvest Active Directory credentials and move laterally through enterprise networks. Attackers didn't need a sophisticated exploit chain. They needed one VPN gateway running a default configuration with

Carl B. Johnson May 25, 2025 7 min read
Phishing Awareness

How to Spot a Phishing Email Before It Costs You

In January 2024, a finance employee at a multinational firm in Hong Kong joined what appeared to be a routine video call with the company's CFO. Everything looked normal — the CFO's face, voice, and mannerisms were all spot-on. The employee followed instructions and wired $25 million

Carl B. Johnson Dec 10, 2024 7 min read
Phish Setlist

Phish Setlist for Security: Building Your Attack Plan

What a Phish Setlist Is — And Why Your Security Team Needs One In March 2024, a mid-size accounting firm lost $2.1 million after an employee clicked a single phishing email disguised as a DocuSign request during tax season. The firm had no phishing simulation program. No playbook. No plan.

Carl B. Johnson Oct 17, 2024 7 min read
Gmail Phishing Attacks

Gmail Sophisticated Attacks: FBI Phishing Warnings for 2024

In May 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that phishing — including sophisticated attacks targeting Gmail users — remained the number one reported cybercrime for the third year running. Over 298,000 phishing complaints landed at IC3 in 2023 alone, and 2024 is tracking even higher. The Gmail

Carl B. Johnson Sep 18, 2024 6 min read
Fake Mail

Fake Mail: How to Spot It Before It Costs You

In January 2024, a finance employee at Arup — a multinational engineering firm — joined a video call with what appeared to be the company's CFO and several colleagues. Every person on that call was a deepfake. The employee transferred $25 million to accounts controlled by threat actors. The attack

Carl B. Johnson Sep 18, 2024 7 min read
AI Phishing Attacks

Gmail Users Warned About Sophisticated AI-Driven Phishing

In May 2024, a Google security consultant named Sam Mitrovic nearly fell for a phishing call that used a convincing AI-generated voice impersonating Google support. The caller had a legitimate-looking Google phone number, referenced real account activity, and spoke with the polished fluency of a native English speaker. The only

Carl B. Johnson Aug 19, 2024 8 min read
Phishing Psychology

How Phishing Emails Work: The Psychology Behind the Click

A Single Click Cost One Company $100 Million In 2019, a Lithuanian national named Evaldas Rimasauskas pleaded guilty to stealing over $100 million from Google and Facebook using nothing but phishing emails. No zero-day exploits. No advanced malware. Just carefully crafted messages that exploited human psychology. If you want to

Carl B. Johnson May 03, 2024 8 min read
Phishing Email Detection

How to Recognize a Phishing Email Before You Click

In January 2024, a finance employee at a multinational firm in Hong Kong wired $25 million to threat actors — all because of a phishing email that led to a deepfake video call. That incident made global headlines, but here's what didn't: the thousands of nearly identical

Carl B. Johnson May 03, 2024 7 min read
Spear Phishing vs Phishing

Spear Phishing vs Phishing: What Actually Gets You Hacked

In January 2024, a finance employee at engineering firm Arup wired $25 million to threat actors after a deepfake video call that impersonated the company's CFO. That attack didn't start with a mass spam blast. It started with a carefully researched, individually targeted spear phishing email.

Carl B. Johnson May 02, 2024 6 min read