Tag

Phishing

Explore in-depth articles about phishing attacks, including email phishing, spear phishing, smishing, and vishing. Learn how attackers craft deceptive messages, steal credentials, and compromise systems — and discover proven strategies to detect and block these threats.

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Phishing

Phishing Attacks in 2022: What Actually Works to Stop Them

The Typo That Costs Billions: Why "Phising" Leads You to the Right Problem Here's something I find fascinating: "phising" is one of the most common misspellings in cybersecurity search queries. Thousands of people type it every day looking for information about phishing — the attack

Carl B. Johnson Oct 18, 2022 7 min read
Fake Emails

Fake Emails: How to Spot Them Before They Cost You

The $2.4 Billion Problem Sitting in Your Inbox In 2021, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that business email compromise — a category driven almost entirely by fake emails — accounted for nearly $2.4 billion in adjusted losses. That made it the single costliest cybercrime type reported.

Carl B. Johnson Sep 22, 2022 7 min read
Spoofing

What Is Spoofing? The Attack Behind 80% of Breaches

In March 2022, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that Business Email Compromise — a scheme built almost entirely on spoofing — cost victims over $2.4 billion in 2021 alone. That made it the single most financially devastating category of cybercrime they tracked. Not ransomware. Not cryptojacking. Spoofing-based

Carl B. Johnson Sep 04, 2022 6 min read
Phishing

Define Phishing: What It Really Looks Like in 2022

In March 2022, threat actors used a single phishing email to breach Okta through a third-party contractor — potentially impacting hundreds of enterprise customers downstream. The attack didn't exploit some exotic zero-day. It exploited a human being who clicked a link. If you're here to define phishing,

Carl B. Johnson Aug 23, 2022 6 min read
Fake Identity Website

Fake Identity Website Threats: How Criminals Steal Data

That Login Page Isn't Real — And Your Employees Can't Tell In March 2022, the FBI warned that cybercriminals were registering domains impersonating well-known businesses at an alarming rate. The scam is straightforward: build a fake identity website that mirrors a legitimate login page, blast phishing emails

Carl B. Johnson Aug 23, 2022 7 min read
Cyber Security Definition

Cyber Security Definition: What It Really Means in 2022

Costa Rica declared a national emergency in May 2022 after the Conti ransomware gang crippled 27 government institutions. Tax systems went offline. Foreign trade ground to a halt. An entire country — not just a company — was brought to its knees by a cyberattack. If you think the cyber security definition

Carl B. Johnson Jun 27, 2022 7 min read
Cybersecurity Definition

Cybersecurity Definition: What It Actually Means in 2022

In March 2022, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that Americans lost over $6.9 billion to cybercrime in 2021 — a 64% jump from the year before. That number makes the standard cybersecurity definition you'll find in a textbook feel almost dangerously quaint. If you&

Carl B. Johnson Jun 20, 2022 6 min read
Phishing

What Is Phishing? A Security Pro's Field Guide

In March 2022, Okta confirmed that the Lapsus$ threat actor group had compromised a support engineer's laptop — and the initial access vector was social engineering. A single employee interaction opened the door to a breach that rattled hundreds of downstream customers. If you're asking what is

Carl B. Johnson May 25, 2022 7 min read
Whaling Attack

Whaling Attack Cybersecurity: How CEOs Get Hooked

In 2016, an employee at Austrian aerospace firm FACC wired $47 million to a bank account controlled by criminals — because an email that looked like it came from the CEO told them to. The CEO was fired. The CFO was fired. The company's stock tanked. That single email

Carl B. Johnson Apr 22, 2022 7 min read