Tag

Multi-Factor Authentication

Posts tagged with multi-factor authentication explain how layered identity verification strengthens access security. Coverage includes MFA implementation strategies, authenticator app comparisons, hardware token options, and best practices for deploying MFA across enterprise environments.

posts

VPN Best Practices

VPN Best Practices: 9 Rules That Actually Stop Breaches

In May 2024, Check Point disclosed that threat actors were actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in its VPN products — CVE-2024-24919 — to harvest Active Directory credentials and move laterally through enterprise networks. Attackers didn't need a sophisticated exploit chain. They needed one VPN gateway running a default configuration with

Carl B. Johnson May 25, 2025 7 min read
Remote Desktop Security Risks

Remote Desktop Security Risks: What Attackers See

Port 3389: The Door You Left Wide Open In January 2024, the FBI and CISA issued a joint advisory warning that the Phobos ransomware group had been exploiting exposed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) services to breach organizations across government, healthcare, education, and critical infrastructure. The attackers didn't use

Carl B. Johnson May 18, 2025 8 min read
Cloud Security Best Practices

Cloud Security Best Practices That Actually Stop Breaches

A Single Misconfigured S3 Bucket Exposed 3 Billion Records In 2021, a researcher discovered that a misconfigured cloud storage bucket belonging to data analytics firm Cognyte had exposed more than five billion records. Capital One's infamous 2019 breach — a misconfigured web application firewall in AWS — cost them over

Carl B. Johnson Apr 22, 2025 7 min read
Securing Cloud Applications

Securing Cloud Applications: A Practical 2025 Guide

The Snowflake Breach Changed How I Think About Cloud Risk In mid-2024, threat actors compromised over 165 organizations by exploiting stolen credentials against Snowflake cloud accounts that lacked multi-factor authentication. Ticketmaster, AT&T, Santander — massive names, massive data losses. The root cause wasn't some exotic zero-day. It

Carl B. Johnson Apr 22, 2025 7 min read
SaaS Security Best Practices

SaaS Security Best Practices: A 2025 Field Guide

In January 2025, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an emergency directive after threat actors exploited misconfigured SaaS environments across multiple federal agencies. The attackers didn't need sophisticated zero-day exploits. They walked in through overprivileged service accounts, dormant API tokens, and single-factor authentication — problems that every

Carl B. Johnson Apr 22, 2025 7 min read
Cyber Hygiene Checklist

Cyber Hygiene Checklist: 12 Steps That Actually Work

The Breach That Started With a Reused Password In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that a Russian threat actor group known as Midnight Blizzard compromised executive email accounts — not through some exotic zero-day, but by password spraying a legacy test account that lacked multi-factor authentication. One overlooked account. No MFA. That&

Carl B. Johnson Mar 17, 2025 7 min read
Stolen Credentials Dark Web

Stolen Credentials Dark Web: What You Must Know in 2025

Your Employees' Passwords Are Probably Already for Sale In January 2024, researchers discovered a file called "Naz.API" circulating on dark web forums containing over 71 million unique email addresses paired with plaintext passwords — many harvested by credential-stealing malware. That's not a hypothetical. That'

Carl B. Johnson Feb 28, 2025 7 min read