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Network Security

Covers strategies, tools, and best practices for protecting computer networks from unauthorized access, cyberattacks, and data breaches. Topics include firewalls, intrusion detection systems, network segmentation, and monitoring techniques that help organizations maintain secure and resilient infrastructure.

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Zero Trust Network Access

Zero Trust Network Access: A Practical Guide for 2026

In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that a Russian-linked threat actor — Midnight Blizzard — breached corporate email accounts by exploiting a legacy test tenant that lacked multi-factor authentication. No zero-day. No sophisticated exploit chain. Just a password spray against an old account that trusted the network it sat on. That's

Carl B. Johnson Mar 30, 2026 5 min read
Spoofing

Spoofing Attacks: How Hackers Impersonate Trust

In July 2020, a seventeen-year-old in Florida used phone-based spoofing and social engineering to compromise internal Twitter tools, hijacking the verified accounts of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Apple. The attackers impersonated IT staff during phone calls to Twitter employees, spoofing caller IDs to appear legitimate. Within hours,

Carl B. Johnson Aug 25, 2021 8 min read
Zero Trust Security Model

Zero Trust Security Model: Why Perimeter Defense Is Dead

In July 2020, Twitter disclosed that attackers had compromised 130 high-profile accounts — including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple — by socially engineering their way past internal employees. The attackers didn't breach a firewall. They didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability. They simply convinced insiders to hand over

Carl B. Johnson Dec 12, 2020 7 min read
Zero Trust

What Is Zero Trust? A Practical Guide for 2021

The SolarWinds Hack Just Proved Your Perimeter Is an Illusion As I write this in December 2020, we're watching the SolarWinds supply chain attack unfold in real time. Threat actors — likely nation-state sponsored — compromised a trusted software update to infiltrate the U.S. Treasury, the Department of Commerce,

Carl B. Johnson Dec 12, 2020 7 min read
Zero Trust Network Access

Zero Trust Network Access: A Practical Guide for 2021

The SolarWinds Breach Just Proved Your Perimeter Is Dead As I write this in December 2020, we're watching one of the most devastating supply chain attacks in history unfold. The SolarWinds breach — disclosed just days ago — compromised U.S. government agencies and major corporations by exploiting trusted software

Carl B. Johnson Dec 12, 2020 7 min read
Zero Trust Implementation

Zero Trust Implementation: A Practical Guide for 2021

When Twitter disclosed in July 2020 that attackers had hijacked 130 high-profile accounts — including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple — the root cause wasn't some exotic zero-day exploit. It was social engineering. Attackers manipulated employees, gained access to internal tools, and moved laterally through systems that trusted them

Carl B. Johnson Dec 12, 2020 7 min read
VPN Best Practices

VPN Best Practices: What Actually Protects You in 2026

In early 2024, Ivanti disclosed critical vulnerabilities in its Connect Secure VPN that were already being actively exploited by threat actors — including nation-state groups. CISA issued an emergency directive ordering federal agencies to disconnect affected devices within 48 hours. It was a brutal reminder: a VPN isn't a

Carl B. Johnson Nov 08, 2020 7 min read
Remote Desktop Security Risks

Remote Desktop Security Risks That Lead to Breaches

A Single Exposed RDP Port Cost One Hospital Everything In 2023, a regional hospital in Illinois discovered that attackers had been inside their network for over three weeks. The entry point? A single Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port left open to the internet. The threat actors used brute-forced credentials to

Carl B. Johnson Nov 08, 2020 6 min read
Man in the Middle Attack

Man in the Middle Attack: How Hackers Steal Data

In 2015, a Belgian company called Crelan Bank lost over €70 million to a sophisticated fraud scheme that began with attackers intercepting email communications between executives. The threat actors positioned themselves between two parties, manipulated invoices, and redirected payments — all without either side realizing the conversation had been compromised. That&

Carl B. Johnson May 08, 2020 7 min read
DNS Spoofing

DNS Spoofing Attack: How It Works and How to Stop It

In April 2022, researchers at Avast discovered that the GhostDNS botnet had compromised over 100,000 home routers across Brazil — silently redirecting banking customers to pixel-perfect phishing pages. Victims typed their real bank URLs into their browsers. The addresses looked correct. But every keystroke landed on a threat actor'

Carl B. Johnson Apr 07, 2020 8 min read