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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

What Is Phishing? The Attack Behind 80% of Breaches

In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 298,000 phishing complaints — making it the most reported cybercrime for the fifth consecutive year. Yet every week, I still talk to business owners who think phishing is just "those obvious Nigerian prince emails." It'

Carl B. Johnson Jul 04, 2019 7 min read
Phishing

Phishing: Why It Still Works and How to Stop It

A Single Email Cost One Company $100 Million In 2019, Toyota Boshoku Corporation lost $37 million to a single business email compromise attack. Facebook and Google collectively lost over $100 million to a Lithuanian man who sent fake invoices via email over a two-year period. These weren't sophisticated

Carl B. Johnson Jun 23, 2019 7 min read
Phish Tour

Phish Tour: How Attackers Rotate Tactics to Hook You

In early 2024, researchers at Proofpoint documented a campaign where a single threat actor group rotated through at least six distinct phishing lure templates in under three weeks — targeting financial services, healthcare, and education sectors in sequence. Security teams that recognized the first lure missed the second. Those who caught

Carl B. Johnson Jun 23, 2019 6 min read
Phishing Definition

Phishing Definition: What It Really Means in 2026

In 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 298,000 complaints related to phishing — making it the most reported cybercrime for the fifth consecutive year. Yet when I ask employees in training sessions to give me a phishing definition, most of them describe a Nigerian prince

Carl B. Johnson Jun 23, 2019 6 min read
Phishing

Definition of a Phishing Attack and Why It Works

In 2023, 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. I've spent years helping organizations respond to these attacks, and the pattern is always the same: someone clicks a link

Carl B. Johnson Jun 23, 2019 7 min read
Spear Phishing

Spear Phishing: Why Targeted Attacks Bypass Your Defenses

In 2023, MGM Resorts lost roughly $100 million after a threat actor called Scattered Spider used a spear phishing phone call — a single, targeted social engineering attack against an IT help desk employee — to breach one of the largest casino operators on the planet. The attacker found the employee'

Carl B. Johnson Jun 18, 2019 7 min read
Spoofing

Spoof Attacks: How Threat Actors Trick Your Defenses

The CEO Email That Cost a Company $47 Million In 2015, Ubiquiti Networks disclosed that attackers impersonating company executives via spoofed emails tricked employees into wiring $46.7 million to overseas accounts. The emails looked legitimate. The sender addresses appeared correct. No malware was involved. The entire attack hinged on

Carl B. Johnson Jun 18, 2019 7 min read
AI Phishing Attacks

FBI Warns Gmail Users of AI-Driven Phishing Attacks

The FBI Warns Gmail Users of Sophisticated AI-Driven Phishing Attacks — And Most People Aren't Ready In late 2024, the FBI issued a stark public service announcement: threat actors are using generative AI to craft phishing emails so convincing that even seasoned IT professionals struggle to spot them. The

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2019 7 min read
Gmail Phishing Attacks

Gmail Sophisticated Attacks: FBI Phishing Warnings for 2026

A Developer Nearly Lost Everything to a Fake Google Support Call In early 2025, a widely reported attack targeted Gmail users with a phone call that appeared to come from Google's actual support number. The caller — using AI-generated voice — told the victim their account had been compromised. They

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2019 6 min read