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Cybersecurity Best Practices

Provides actionable strategies and proven frameworks for strengthening your organization's security posture. Articles cover risk assessment, access controls, incident response planning, network segmentation, encryption standards, and policy development for businesses of all sizes.

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Computer Security Advice

Computer Security Advice That Actually Stops Breaches

The Breach That Started With a Single Reused Password In 2024, Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacy operations across the entire United States. The root cause? Compromised credentials on a remote access system that lacked multi-factor authentication. One account. No MFA. Billions of dollars in damage. I&

Carl B. Johnson Aug 24, 2026 5 min read
Cybersecurity Best Practices

Cybersecurity Best Practices for Employees in 2026

One Click Cost MGM Resorts $100 Million In September 2023, a threat actor called Scattered Spider social-engineered an MGM Resorts employee through a simple phone call to the IT help desk. That single conversation — not a sophisticated zero-day exploit, not a nation-state attack — led to a ransomware incident that shut

Carl B. Johnson Aug 23, 2026 5 min read
Defense Evasion

When Attackers Removed Legitimate Software to Own You

They Didn't Just Bypass Your Security — They Removed Legitimate Tools Entirely In early 2024, a ransomware gang hit a mid-sized healthcare network and encrypted 11,000 endpoints in under four hours. The forensic report revealed something chilling: before deploying a single payload, the attackers methodically removed legitimate security

Carl B. Johnson Aug 10, 2026 5 min read
Computer Security Advice

Computer Security Advice That Actually Works in 2026

A school district in Arizona lost $3.5 million in January 2024 after a single employee followed spoofed wire transfer instructions. The attacker didn't exploit a software vulnerability. They exploited trust. That incident captures why most computer security advice fails — it focuses on tools while ignoring the human

Carl B. Johnson Aug 07, 2026 5 min read
Password Hygiene Tips

Password Hygiene Tips That Actually Stop Breaches

The Breach That Started With "Spring2024!" In 2023, a Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report finding shook the industry: roughly 49% of breaches involved stolen credentials. Not sophisticated zero-day exploits. Not nation-state malware. Passwords. Reused, predictable, phishable passwords. I've responded to incidents where the root cause was

Carl B. Johnson Aug 06, 2026 5 min read
Ransomware Prevention

How to Prevent Ransomware: A Practical Defense Guide

A Single Click Cost One Hospital Chain $100 Million In 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the U.S. — got hit with a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacy operations across the entire country. UnitedHealth Group, its parent company, reported costs exceeding $870 million related to

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

How to Prevent Ransomware: A Practical Defense Guide

A Single Click Cost One Hospital System $67 Million In 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the U.S. — was hit by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group. The attack disrupted claims processing for thousands of providers nationwide. UnitedHealth Group, its parent company, reported costs exceeding

Carl B. Johnson Jul 07, 2026 5 min read
Security in Cloud Computing

Security in Cloud Computing: What Goes Wrong First

Capital One Lost 100 Million Records — The Cloud Wasn't the Problem In 2019, a former AWS employee exploited a misconfigured web application firewall and exfiltrated over 100 million Capital One customer records. The cloud infrastructure worked exactly as designed. The humans configuring it didn't. That breach

Carl B. Johnson Jun 27, 2026 5 min read
CISA Cybersecurity Guidelines

CISA Cybersecurity Guidelines: What Actually Matters

Most Organizations Read CISA's Advice — Then Ignore the Hard Parts In 2023, the City of Dallas got hit with Royal ransomware. Services went down. Police dispatch systems broke. Recovery took weeks and cost millions. The attack vector? The kind of basic intrusion that CISA cybersecurity guidelines have warned

Carl B. Johnson Jun 20, 2026 5 min read
Computer Security Advice

Computer Security Advice That Actually Works in 2026

A school district in Arizona lost $3.5 million in January 2024 after a single employee followed a spoofed email's wire transfer instructions. No malware. No sophisticated zero-day exploit. Just one person who didn't recognize a social engineering attack. That's why most computer security

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2026 5 min read