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phishing awareness

Provides resources for building phishing awareness among individuals and teams. Articles cover how to recognize phishing emails, conduct simulated phishing exercises, develop security-conscious habits, and implement ongoing awareness training programs within organizations.

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fake email

Fake Email: How to Spot It Before It Costs You

In 2023, a finance employee at a multinational firm in Hong Kong wired $25 million after receiving what appeared to be a legitimate video call from the company's CFO — a deepfake. But the attack started with something far simpler: a fake email. That initial message looked routine, requested

Carl B. Johnson Oct 02, 2026 5 min read
cybersecurity gamification training

Cybersecurity Gamification Training: Why It Works

A Fortune 500 company ran the same annual compliance training for three straight years. Completion rates hovered around 92%. Their phishing click rate? Stubbornly stuck at 31%. Then they switched to a gamified approach — leaderboards, scenario-based challenges, real-time feedback. Within six months, that click rate dropped to 11%. Cybersecurity gamification

Carl B. Johnson Aug 28, 2026 5 min read
phishing meaning

Phishing Meaning: What It Really Is 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. Despite billions spent on email filters and endpoint detection, phishing still works. And it works devastatingly well. If you've ever

Carl B. Johnson Aug 02, 2026 5 min read
phishing meaning

Phishing Meaning: What It Really Is 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 for the fifth consecutive year. Yet when I ask business owners what phishing actually means, most give me a vague answer about "fake emails." That incomplete

Carl B. Johnson Jul 24, 2026 5 min read
phish

How One Phish Can Sink Your Entire Organization

A Single Phish Email Cost One Company $100 Million In 2024, MGM Resorts confirmed that a social engineering attack — which started with a single phone call and a phish-style credential theft scheme — contributed to losses exceeding $100 million. The threat actors behind the Scattered Spider group didn't need

Carl B. Johnson Jul 23, 2026 5 min read
phishing simulation training

Phishing Simulation Training: Why Most Programs Fail

A 60% Click Rate That Should Have Been a Wake-Up Call I ran a phishing simulation training exercise for a mid-size logistics company last year. The first campaign used a fake Microsoft 365 password reset email — nothing fancy, no zero-day exploit, just a convincing lure. Sixty percent of employees clicked.

Carl B. Johnson Jun 22, 2026 5 min read
phishing meaning

Phishing Meaning: What It Really Is and Why It Works

In May 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that phishing was — for the ninth consecutive year — the most-reported cybercrime in the United States. Not ransomware. Not cryptojacking. Phishing. The simplest attack in the playbook continues to cause the most damage, and the phishing meaning most people

Carl B. Johnson Jan 17, 2026 7 min read
phishing meaning

Phishing Meaning: What It Really Is and Why It Works

In January 2024, a finance employee at a multinational firm in Hong Kong transferred $25.6 million to criminals after a video call with what appeared to be the company's CFO. Every person on that call was a deepfake. That's where phishing lives now — far beyond

Carl B. Johnson Sep 18, 2024 7 min read
computer security advice

Computer Security Advice That Actually Stops Breaches

The Breach That Started With a Single Reused Password In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that a Russian state-sponsored threat actor — Midnight Blizzard — breached executive email accounts using a password spray attack against a legacy test account that lacked multi-factor authentication. Microsoft. One of the largest technology companies on Earth. Compromised

Carl B. Johnson May 13, 2024 7 min read