Tag

Phishing Prevention

Delivers actionable advice on recognizing and preventing phishing attacks, including email phishing, spear phishing, smishing, and vishing. Covers detection techniques, employee training approaches, email security tools, and real-world phishing examples to strengthen your defenses.

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Strong Passwords

How to Create a Strong Password That Actually Stops Hackers

In 2023, a single reused password gave threat actors access to 23andMe's credential-stuffing attack, exposing the genetic data of nearly 7 million users. The attackers didn't exploit some exotic zero-day vulnerability. They just tried stolen username-password pairs from other breaches — and millions of them worked. If

Carl B. Johnson Nov 26, 2019 6 min read
Password Manager Benefits

Password Manager Benefits That Stop 80% of Breaches

In 2024, a single set of stolen Snowflake credentials led to the breach of over 165 organizations — including Ticketmaster and AT&T — exposing hundreds of millions of customer records. The root cause wasn't some exotic zero-day exploit. It was reused passwords without multi-factor authentication. Every one of

Carl B. Johnson Nov 02, 2019 7 min read
Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-Factor Authentication Setup: A Practical Guide

In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor bypassed their security by social engineering the help desk into resetting an employee's credentials — credentials that lacked properly enforced multi-factor authentication at critical junctures. That single phone call cascaded into one of the most expensive

Carl B. Johnson Nov 02, 2019 8 min read
Password Manager

Why Use a Password Manager: The Case Is Settled

The 24 Billion Stolen Passwords Sitting on the Dark Web Researchers at Digital Shadows found over 24 billion username-and-password combinations circulating on dark web marketplaces. That number keeps climbing. If you're still asking why use a password manager, the stolen credential economy already answered for you — your reused

Carl B. Johnson Nov 02, 2019 6 min read
Password Hygiene Tips

Password Hygiene Tips That Actually Stop Breaches

The 80% Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About The 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that stolen credentials were involved in roughly 31% of all breaches over the past decade — and that human-element breaches, including credential theft and phishing, accounted for nearly 68% of incidents in their latest dataset.

Carl B. Johnson Nov 02, 2019 6 min read
Insider Threats

How to Prevent Insider Threats Before They Cost Millions

In 2022, a former employee at Cash App's parent company, Block Inc., downloaded reports containing the personal information of over 8 million customers — months after they'd left the company. The access was never revoked. No alarm was triggered. The breach wasn't discovered until the

Carl B. Johnson Oct 01, 2019 7 min read
Securing Remote Employees

Securing Remote Employees: A Practical Guide for 2026

In 2023, a single remote employee at a major casino operator received a phone call from someone claiming to be IT support. That social engineering attack — a vishing call lasting roughly ten minutes — gave threat actors the foothold they needed to deploy ransomware across MGM Resorts' entire network, causing

Carl B. Johnson Sep 28, 2019 8 min read
Acceptable Use Policy

Acceptable Use Policy Cybersecurity: Why Yours Fails

The Policy Gathering Dust in Your Shared Drive In 2023, the city of Dallas was hit by a Royal ransomware attack that crippled municipal services for weeks. Investigators traced the initial access back to a service account and poor access controls — exactly the kind of risk a well-enforced acceptable use

Carl B. Johnson Sep 20, 2019 7 min read