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Cybersecurity Basics

Foundational cybersecurity knowledge for beginners and anyone looking to strengthen core security habits. Posts cover essential topics like strong password creation, software updates, recognizing social engineering attacks, securing home networks, and understanding common threat types.

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Phishing Definition

Phishing Definition: What It Really Means in 2026

In 2024, 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. That number almost certainly undercounts reality. Most phishing attacks never get reported. If you've landed here searching for a phishing

Carl B. Johnson May 12, 2026 5 min read
What Is Cybersecurity

What Is Cybersecurity? A Practitioner's Real-World Guide

In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor called Scattered Spider social-engineered their way past the help desk with a ten-minute phone call. That single conversation gave attackers the keys to slot machines, hotel room systems, and customer data across an entire casino empire. If

Carl B. Johnson Apr 30, 2026 5 min read
Phishing

What Is Phishing? The Attack Behind 80% of Breaches

In 2023, a single phishing email gave threat actors access to MGM Resorts' entire IT infrastructure. The attackers impersonated an employee on a help desk call — a technique they refined through information harvested from a phishing campaign. The result was over $100 million in losses and days of operational

Carl B. Johnson Apr 16, 2026 5 min read
Phishing Scams

What Is a Phishing Scam? A Real-World Guide for 2025

In January 2024, a finance employee at British engineering firm Arup transferred $25 million to threat actors after joining a video call with what appeared to be the company's CFO and other colleagues — all of them deepfake recreations. The attack started the way most do: with a phishing

Carl B. Johnson Dec 27, 2025 7 min read
Phishing Attacks

What Is a Phishing Attack? A Real-World Breakdown

In January 2024, a finance employee at engineering firm Arup wired $25 million to criminals after joining a video call with what appeared to be the company's CFO and several colleagues. Every person on that call was a deepfake. The attack started the same way nearly all of

Carl B. Johnson Dec 13, 2025 8 min read
What Is Cybersecurity

What Is Cybersecurity? A Practitioner's Real-World Guide

A $4.88 Million Question Nobody Asks Until It's Too Late In May 2023, the city of Dallas, Texas got hit with Royal ransomware. Emergency services disrupted. Court systems offline. Weeks of recovery. The estimated cost ran into tens of millions. And the entry point? A service account

Carl B. Johnson Nov 06, 2025 7 min read
Cybersecurity Definition

Cybersecurity Definition: What It Actually Means in 2025

In May 2023, Progress Software's MOVEit file transfer tool was exploited by the Cl0p ransomware gang, compromising data from over 2,500 organizations and roughly 67 million individuals. Government agencies, hospitals, universities, Fortune 500 companies — none were spared. If you asked any of those organizations whether they had

Carl B. Johnson Sep 27, 2025 7 min read
Define Cyber

Define Cyber: What It Really Means in 2025

A Three-Letter Prefix That Now Governs Trillions of Dollars When the White House released its updated National Cybersecurity Strategy implementation plan in 2024, the word "cyber" appeared over 400 times in a single document. The Pentagon has an entire command built around it — U.S. Cyber Command. The

Carl B. Johnson Sep 27, 2025 6 min read
Phishing

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

The Attack That Cost MGM Resorts $100 Million Started With a Phone Call In September 2023, a threat actor called the MGM Resorts IT help desk, impersonated an employee they found on LinkedIn, and talked their way into a password reset. Within hours, the attackers had deployed ransomware across MGM&

Carl B. Johnson Sep 22, 2025 7 min read