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Email Security

Comprehensive guides on protecting email accounts and infrastructure from cyber threats. Covers email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, encryption best practices, spam filtering, and organizational policies that reduce the risk of email-based attacks.

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Phishing Emails

How to Spot Phishing Emails Before They Cost You

In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 298,000 phishing complaints — more than any other cybercrime category. That number has only climbed since. I've investigated breaches at organizations of every size, and the entry point is almost always the same: one employee who

Carl B. Johnson Aug 25, 2026 6 min read
Phishing Attack

Phishing Attack Anatomy: How Breaches Actually Start

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 single phone call. But that attack started the way most do — with a phishing attack that gathered the intelligence needed to make that call convincing.

Carl B. Johnson Aug 24, 2026 5 min read
AI Phishing Attacks

FBI Warns Gmail Users of AI-Driven Phishing Attacks

A Phone Call That Sounds Exactly Like Google Support — But Isn't In late 2024, a Microsoft solutions consultant named Sam Mitrovic nearly lost his Google account to an AI-generated voice that sounded indistinguishable from a real Google support agent. The caller ID showed a legitimate Google number. The

Carl B. Johnson Aug 22, 2026 5 min read
Phishing

Phishing: Why It Still Works and How to Stop It

A Single Email Cost This Company Everything In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor used a phone-based social engineering attack — a technique closely related to phishing — to gain access to their systems. The attackers didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability or brute-force a

Carl B. Johnson Aug 22, 2026 5 min read
Gmail Phishing Attacks

Gmail Sophisticated Attacks: FBI Phishing Warnings for 2026

A Google Developer Nearly Lost Everything to a Fake Support Call In early 2025, a well-known Google developer publicly documented how he nearly fell for a sophisticated phishing attack targeting his Gmail account. The caller ID showed a legitimate Google phone number. The voice on the other end sounded professional,

Carl B. Johnson Aug 20, 2026 6 min read
Fake Email

Fake Email: How to Spot One Before It Costs You

In 2019, a Lithuanian man named Evaldas Rimasauskas pleaded guilty to stealing over $100 million from Google and Facebook — using nothing more than a series of fake email messages. He impersonated a legitimate hardware vendor, sent invoices from spoofed email addresses, and two of the most sophisticated tech companies on

Carl B. Johnson Aug 19, 2026 6 min read
Spear Phishing

Spear Phishing: Why Targeted Attacks Beat Defenses

In 2023, MGM Resorts lost roughly $100 million after a threat actor called Scattered Spider impersonated an employee on a help desk call — a textbook spear phishing technique that bypassed every technical control the company had. The attacker didn't blast out a million generic emails. They researched one

Carl B. Johnson Aug 17, 2026 5 min read
Phishing

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

A Single Email Cost This Company $100 Million In 2019, Toyota Boshoku Corporation lost $37 million to a single business email compromise attack. A threat actor impersonated a senior executive and convinced a finance employee to change wire transfer details. The money vanished. That's phishing — not some abstract

Carl B. Johnson Aug 15, 2026 5 min read
AI Phishing Attacks

Gmail Users Warned About Sophisticated AI-Driven Phishing

The AI-Generated Email That Fooled a Security Engineer In early 2025, a Google Workspace consultant named Sam Mitrovic publicly documented how he nearly fell for an AI-driven phishing attack targeting his Gmail account. The attacker spoofed Google's support number, used a perfectly natural AI-generated voice, and referenced real

Carl B. Johnson Aug 08, 2026 6 min read