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.

posts

Executive Phishing Attacks

Executive Phishing Attacks: Why the C-Suite Is Ground Zero

In January 2022, a European subsidiary of the Japanese manufacturer Nikkei lost $29 million after a single employee followed wire transfer instructions from a fraudulent email that impersonated a senior executive. That wasn't a failure of firewalls or endpoint detection. It was a surgical, well-researched executive phishing attack

Carl B. Johnson Jun 08, 2023 7 min read
Phishing Simulation

Phish Setlist for Security: Building Your Attack Plan

Why Every Security Team Needs a Phish Setlist In March 2022, Okta confirmed that the Lapsus$ threat actor group breached a third-party support engineer's account — and a big part of that attack chain started with social engineering. A single compromised credential. One phishing message that worked. That'

Carl B. Johnson Nov 21, 2022 7 min read
Phish Tour

Phish Tour: Simulated Attacks That Train Your Team

One Clicked Link Cost This Company Everything In September 2022, a single employee at Uber clicked a link in a social engineering attack. The threat actor, reportedly affiliated with Lapsus$, used that foothold to access internal systems, Slack channels, and cloud infrastructure. The breach made global headlines — not because Uber&

Carl B. Johnson Nov 21, 2022 7 min read
Phishing Awareness

How to Spot Phishing Emails: 9 Red Flags That Matter

In March 2022, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that phishing schemes were the most common cybercrime in 2021, with over 323,000 victims — more than double the count from 2019. That number is climbing again in 2022. If you're searching for how to spot

Carl B. Johnson Sep 22, 2022 7 min read
Spoofing

What Is Spoofing? The Attack Behind 80% of Breaches

In March 2022, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that Business Email Compromise — a scheme built almost entirely on spoofing — cost victims over $2.4 billion in 2021 alone. That made it the single most financially devastating category of cybercrime they tracked. Not ransomware. Not cryptojacking. Spoofing-based

Carl B. Johnson Sep 04, 2022 6 min read
Spear Phishing vs Phishing

Spear Phishing vs Phishing: What Actually Gets People

In March 2022, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that business email compromise — a form of spear phishing — caused $2.4 billion in adjusted losses in 2021 alone. That dwarfs every other cybercrime category. Meanwhile, broad phishing campaigns still top the list as the most common attack

Carl B. Johnson May 25, 2022 7 min read
Data Breach Examples

Data Breach Examples: Lessons That Still Apply in 2022

In January 2022, the International Committee of the Red Cross disclosed that a sophisticated cyberattack compromised the personal data of more than 515,000 vulnerable people — including refugees, detainees, and missing persons. The attackers exploited an unpatched vulnerability in a single system. One missed update. Half a million of the

Carl B. Johnson Feb 24, 2022 6 min read