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Data Breach Prevention

Explores strategies and best practices for preventing data breaches in organizations of all sizes. Covers topics like access controls, encryption, network monitoring, incident response planning, and employee awareness to help reduce the risk of unauthorized data exposure.

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Cost of a Data Breach

Cost of a Data Breach: What 2021 Trends Tell Us

The Cost of a Data Breach Is Already Staggering — And the Trajectory Is Alarming In 2020, the average cost of a data breach hit $3.86 million globally, according to IBM and the Ponemon Institute's annual Cost of a Data Breach Report. That number has been climbing steadily

Carl B. Johnson Jan 14, 2021 6 min read
Password Security

Password Security Best Practices That Actually Work

The Breach That Started With a Single Reused Password In December 2020, the SolarWinds breach dominated every security headline on the planet. But while the world fixated on nation-state threat actors and supply chain attacks, I kept thinking about a detail that emerged early: a SolarWinds intern had reportedly set

Carl B. Johnson Jan 14, 2021 7 min read
Strong Passwords

How to Create a Strong Password: A Practical Guide

In the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, over 80% of hacking-related breaches involved stolen or brute-forced credentials. Not sophisticated zero-day exploits. Not nation-state malware. Passwords. The single thing most people treat as an afterthought is the single thing that gets most organizations compromised. Knowing how to create a strong

Carl B. Johnson Jan 14, 2021 7 min read
Password Manager Benefits

Password Manager Benefits: Why Pros Won't Work Without One

The Breach That Started With a Sticky Note In 2020, a senior employee at a Florida water treatment facility reportedly reused passwords across multiple systems — including the one controlling sodium hydroxide levels in the public water supply. That incident, disclosed in early February 2021, showed exactly how a single weak

Carl B. Johnson Jan 14, 2021 6 min read
Password Manager

Why Use a Password Manager: A Security Pro's Take

In December 2020, SolarWinds disclosed one of the most devastating supply chain compromises in history. But buried in the early reporting was a detail that made every security professional wince: a critical password — "solarwinds123" — had been publicly accessible on GitHub. One weak, reused, laughably simple password contributed to

Carl B. Johnson Jan 03, 2021 6 min read
Password Hygiene Tips

Password Hygiene Tips That Actually Stop Breaches

In December 2020, SolarWinds disclosed a supply chain compromise that shook the entire cybersecurity industry. But while the world was focused on nation-state threat actors, Verizon's 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report had already confirmed something far more common and just as devastating: over 80% of hacking-related breaches involved

Carl B. Johnson Jan 03, 2021 7 min read
Strong Password Examples

Strong Password Examples That Actually Stop Hackers

The Breach That Started With "Password123" In 2020, the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report confirmed what security professionals already suspected: over 80% of hacking-related breaches involved brute force or the use of lost or stolen credentials. That's not a typo. Four out of five breaches trace

Carl B. Johnson Dec 20, 2020 7 min read
Insider Threat Awareness

Insider Threat Awareness: What Your Team Isn't Telling You

In July 2020, a 17-year-old in Florida convinced a Twitter employee to hand over internal credentials. Within hours, threat actors had hijacked 130 high-profile accounts — including those of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple — and used them to run a Bitcoin scam. The breach didn't start with a

Carl B. Johnson Dec 20, 2020 7 min read
Insider Threats

Insider Threat Examples: Real Cases That Cost Millions

In July 2020, a 17-year-old in Florida convinced a Twitter employee to hand over internal credentials. Within hours, the attacker had hijacked accounts belonging to Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, and Apple — tweeting a Bitcoin scam that netted over $100,000. The most sophisticated firewall in the world wouldn&

Carl B. Johnson Dec 20, 2020 7 min read