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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 Security Model

Zero Trust Security Model: Why Perimeter Defense Is Dead

A Castle With No Walls Left to Defend In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that the Russian threat actor Midnight Blizzard had compromised executive email accounts — not by breaching a firewall, but by password-spraying a legacy test tenant account that lacked multi-factor authentication. The attackers moved laterally for weeks before detection.

Carl B. Johnson May 15, 2026 5 min read
DNS Spoofing

DNS Spoofing Attack: How Hackers Redirect Your Traffic

In April 2024, researchers at Akamai discovered a massive DNS hijacking campaign targeting financial institutions across Southeast Asia. Attackers poisoned DNS caches at the ISP level, silently redirecting thousands of banking customers to pixel-perfect phishing sites. Victims entered their credentials on pages that looked identical to their bank's

Carl B. Johnson May 14, 2026 5 min read
Zero Trust Network Access

Zero Trust Network Access: A Practical Guide for 2026

The Breach That Started Behind the Firewall In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor social-engineered their way past the help desk with a single phone call. The attacker didn't punch through a firewall. They didn't exploit some exotic zero-day. They

Carl B. Johnson Apr 24, 2026 5 min read
VPN Best Practices

VPN Best Practices: What Actually Protects You in 2026

In early 2024, threat actors exploited critical vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure VPN appliances so aggressively that CISA issued an emergency directive ordering federal agencies to disconnect the devices entirely. Not patch them. Disconnect them. That moment should have been a wake-up call: having a VPN isn't enough.

Carl B. Johnson Apr 12, 2026 5 min read
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 They Work and How to Stop Them

A CFO Wired $25 Million Because of a Spoofed Video Call In early 2024, a finance worker at a multinational firm in Hong Kong transferred $25.6 million after joining a video conference call where every other participant — including the company's CFO — was a deepfake. The threat actors

Carl B. Johnson Jan 17, 2026 7 min read
Zero Trust Security Model

Zero Trust Security Model: Why Perimeter Defense Is Dead

In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that the Russian threat actor Midnight Blizzard had breached corporate email accounts — not by exploiting some exotic zero-day, but by password spraying a legacy test tenant that lacked multi-factor authentication. One overlooked account. No MFA. Catastrophic access. If a company with Microsoft's resources

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2025 7 min read
Zero Trust

What Is Zero Trust? A Practical Guide for 2025

The Breach That Made "Trust But Verify" Obsolete In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that a Russian state-sponsored threat actor known as Midnight Blizzard had compromised executive email accounts — not by exploiting some exotic zero-day, but by password-spraying a legacy test tenant account that lacked multi-factor authentication. One overlooked

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2025 8 min read
Zero Trust Network Access

Zero Trust Network Access: A Practical 2025 Guide

The VPN That Let Attackers Walk Right In In January 2024, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed that Chinese state-sponsored threat actors had exploited Ivanti Connect Secure VPN vulnerabilities to breach multiple U.S. federal agencies. The attackers didn't kick down the door. They walked through

Carl B. Johnson May 25, 2025 7 min read
Zero Trust Implementation

Zero Trust Implementation: A Practical Guide for 2025

In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that a Russian threat actor known as Midnight Blizzard breached corporate email accounts — not through some exotic zero-day, but by password-spraying a legacy test account that lacked multi-factor authentication. One forgotten account. No segmentation. No least-privilege enforcement. The result: a nation-state actor reading executive emails

Carl B. Johnson May 25, 2025 7 min read