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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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Strong Passwords

How to Create a Strong Password That Actually Works

In 2023, a single compromised password at MGM Resorts helped threat actors trigger a social engineering attack that cost the company over $100 million. The attackers didn't exploit some exotic zero-day vulnerability. They exploited people — and weak credential hygiene handed them the keys. If you've ever

Carl B. Johnson Jul 28, 2026 5 min read
Ransomware

How Ransomware Spreads: 6 Attack Vectors in 2026

A Single Email Cost One Hospital Chain $100 Million In 2024, Change Healthcare — a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group — suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacy operations, insurance claims, and patient care across the United States. The company paid a $22 million ransom. Total damages exceeded $100 million. The initial entry

Carl B. Johnson Jul 25, 2026 5 min read
Home Computer Security

How Can You Protect Your Home Computer in 2026

Your Home Computer Is a Bigger Target Than You Think In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 880,000 complaints with losses exceeding $12.5 billion — and a massive share of those victims were everyday people targeted through their personal machines. Not corporate networks. Not

Carl B. Johnson Jul 16, 2026 5 min read
Ransomware

What Is Ransomware? A Security Pro's Real-World Guide

A Hospital Goes Dark in 90 Seconds In 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the United States — was hit by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group. The attack disrupted pharmacy operations, delayed patient care, and exposed the protected health information of roughly 100 million individuals. UnitedHealth

Carl B. Johnson Jul 16, 2026 5 min read
Strong Passwords

Strong Password Examples That Actually Stop Hackers

In 2023, a single reused password led to the MGM Resorts breach that cost the company over $100 million in damages. The threat actor didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability or write custom malware. They called the help desk, social-engineered their way in, and leveraged weak credentials to move

Carl B. Johnson Jul 13, 2026 5 min read
Password Manager Benefits

Password Manager Benefits That Stop 80% of Breaches

One Reused Password Cost This Company $10 Million In 2024, the Snowflake customer breach wave compromised over 165 organizations — including Ticketmaster and AT&T — because attackers used stolen credentials harvested from infostealer malware. The common thread? Employees reusing passwords across personal and corporate accounts with no password manager in

Carl B. Johnson Jul 10, 2026 5 min read
Clean Desk Policy

Clean Desk Policy Cybersecurity: Your Cheapest Defense

The Sticky Note That Cost a Hospital $3 Million A nurse left a sticky note with login credentials on her monitor. A visitor photographed it. Within 48 hours, a threat actor had accessed patient records for over 10,000 individuals. The resulting HIPAA settlement wasn't pretty. I'

Carl B. Johnson Jul 06, 2026 5 min read
Computer Virus Prevention

Computer Virus Prevention: 9 Steps That Actually Work

The Virus That Cost a Hospital $65 Million In 2017, the WannaCry ransomware tore through the UK's National Health Service, locking down systems at over 80 organizations and forcing hospitals to divert ambulances. The estimated cost exceeded £92 million. The root cause? Unpatched Windows machines running a known

Carl B. Johnson Jul 06, 2026 5 min read
Man in the Middle Attack

Man in the Middle Attack: How Hackers Steal Data

In January 2024, security researchers at Checkmarx uncovered a massive man in the middle attack campaign targeting the Python Package Index (PyPI), where threat actors intercepted developer credentials and injected malicious code into software supply chains. The attack went undetected for months. This wasn't some exotic nation-state operation

Carl B. Johnson Jul 05, 2026 6 min read