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Cybersecurity Awareness

Articles on cybersecurity awareness cover the foundational knowledge individuals and organizations need to recognize and respond to digital threats. Topics include safe browsing habits, password hygiene, social engineering tactics, and building a security-first culture across teams.

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SQL Injection

SQL Injection Explained: The Attack That Won't Die

In 2023, the MOVEit Transfer vulnerability — a SQL injection flaw — led to the compromise of over 2,600 organizations and exposed data on more than 77 million individuals. One vulnerability. One injection point. Billions in damage. And here's what should keep you up at night: SQL injection has

Carl B. Johnson Jul 14, 2019 7 min read
Phishing Definition

Phishing Definition: What It Really Means in 2026

In 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 298,000 complaints related to phishing — making it the most reported cybercrime for the fifth consecutive year. Yet when I ask employees in training sessions to give me a phishing definition, most of them describe a Nigerian prince

Carl B. Johnson Jun 23, 2019 6 min read
Phishing

Definition of a Phishing Attack and Why It Works

In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 298,000 phishing complaints — making it the most reported cybercrime category for the fifth consecutive year. I've spent years helping organizations respond to these attacks, and the pattern is always the same: someone clicks a link

Carl B. Johnson Jun 23, 2019 7 min read
Spoofing

Spoofing Attacks: How Hackers Impersonate You

A CFO, a Spoofed Email, and a $37 Million Wire Transfer In 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) continued reporting staggering losses from business email compromise — a category where spoofing is the engine that makes the scam work. Threat actors forge sender addresses, manipulate caller IDs,

Carl B. Johnson Jun 18, 2019 8 min read
Spoofing

Spoof Attacks: How Threat Actors Trick Your Defenses

The CEO Email That Cost a Company $47 Million In 2015, Ubiquiti Networks disclosed that attackers impersonating company executives via spoofed emails tricked employees into wiring $46.7 million to overseas accounts. The emails looked legitimate. The sender addresses appeared correct. No malware was involved. The entire attack hinged on

Carl B. Johnson Jun 18, 2019 7 min read
Phishing Email

Phishing Email Tactics in 2026: What Actually Works

Last year, a finance director at a mid-size logistics company wired $1.2 million to a threat actor who sent a single phishing email impersonating the CEO. The email contained no malware, no suspicious attachments, and no misspelled words. It simply asked for an urgent wire transfer, referenced a real

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2019 7 min read
Phishing

Phishing Attacks in 2026: How to Spot and Stop Them

A Single Phishing Email Cost This Company $100 Million In 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that phishing — often misspelled as "phising" — remained the most reported cybercrime category, with hundreds of thousands of complaints filed in a single year. But the raw numbers don&

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2019 7 min read
Phishing Scams

What Is a Phishing Scam? A Security Pro's Real Guide

The $4.88 Million Email That Looked Completely Normal In 2023, a finance employee at a midsize manufacturing firm received an email from what appeared to be the CEO. It referenced a real acquisition the company was working on. It used the CEO's actual email signature. The employee

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2019 7 min read
Spoofing

What Is Spoofing? The Attack Behind Most Breaches

In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 298,000 complaints related to phishing and spoofing — making it the number one reported cybercrime category for the fifth year running. That wasn't a fluke. Spoofing is the backbone of almost every major social engineering campaign

Carl B. Johnson Apr 01, 2019 7 min read
Group Online Svindel

Group Online Svindel: How Organized Fraud Rings Work

In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported over $12.5 billion in losses from internet crime — a staggering 22% increase from the year before. Behind many of these losses weren't lone hackers in basements. They were organized groups running coordinated group online svindel

Carl B. Johnson Apr 01, 2019 7 min read