Tag

Cyber Hygiene Definition

Defines cyber hygiene in clear, accessible terms and distinguishes it from broader cybersecurity strategies. Posts explore the origin of the term, its core components, and how maintaining basic digital health practices prevents malware infections, data breaches, and unauthorized access.

posts

Cyber Hygiene

Cyber Hygiene Definition: What It Really Means in 2025

In February 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the U.S. — got hit with a ransomware attack that disrupted claims processing for weeks and exposed data on roughly 100 million individuals. The root cause? Compromised credentials on a system that lacked multi-factor authentication. That'

Carl B. Johnson Mar 25, 2025 7 min read
Cyber Hygiene

Cyber Hygiene Definition: What It Really Means in 2023

In March 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that Americans lost over $10.3 billion to cybercrime in 2022 — a 49% jump from 2021. The vast majority of those losses traced back to failures in basic security practices. Not zero-day exploits. Not nation-state attacks. Basic, preventable

Carl B. Johnson Jun 08, 2023 7 min read
Cyber Hygiene

Cyber Hygiene Definition: What It Really Means in 2026

A Single Reused Password Cost One Company Everything In 2021, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack shut down fuel distribution across the U.S. East Coast. The entry point? A single compromised password on a legacy VPN account that lacked multi-factor authentication. That's not a sophisticated nation-state exploit. That&

Carl B. Johnson Sep 07, 2020 6 min read
Cyber Hygiene

Cyber Hygiene Definition: What It Really Means in 2026

A Preventable Breach That Started With One Reused Password In 2024, the breach at Change Healthcare disrupted pharmacy operations across the United States for weeks. The root cause? A compromised credential on a system that lacked multi-factor authentication. That single gap — a basic cyber hygiene failure — led to one of

Carl B. Johnson Aug 20, 2019 6 min read