Discover resources and strategies for building effective security awareness training programs. Posts cover curriculum design, engagement techniques, compliance requirements, and methods for measuring training impact to reduce human-related security incidents across organizations.
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43% of Cyberattacks Target Small Businesses — Most Aren't Ready That number comes straight from the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, and it's been climbing for years. In my experience working with organizations of every size, small businesses consistently overestimate their security posture and underestimate their exposure.
Welcome to the Phish Tour Nobody Asked For In March 2024, MGM Resorts was still tallying the damage from a social engineering attack that started with a single phone call. The threat actor convinced a help desk employee to reset credentials. Total estimated cost: over $100 million. That attack didn&
In 2023, a single phishing email gave threat actors access to MGM Resorts' entire IT infrastructure. The attackers impersonated an employee on a help desk call — a technique they refined through information harvested from a phishing campaign. The result was over $100 million in losses and days of operational
In 2024, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a social engineering attack that started with a single phone call to the help desk. The threat actor didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability or deploy some exotic malware. They impersonated an employee. That's it. And it
In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor called Scattered Spider social-engineered a help desk employee with a ten-minute phone call. That single conversation gave attackers the keys to one of the largest hospitality companies on the planet. So when someone asks me what is
In 2023, Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report found that 74% of all breaches involved the human element — and a growing percentage of those started on a mobile device. I've reviewed mobile device security policies for organizations of every size, and here's the uncomfortable truth:
In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over 880,000 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion — a 22% increase from the year before. A massive chunk of those losses traced back to malware infections that could have been stopped with basic hygiene. If
76,000 Victims and Counting — The FBI's Smishing Alert Is Serious In early 2024, the FBI and FTC issued urgent warnings about a massive smishing campaign impersonating toll collection agencies and delivery services across all 50 states. By late 2025, the IC3 had cataloged tens of thousands of
In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported that phishing — including fake mail delivered via email, text, and voice — was the most reported cybercrime category for the fifth consecutive year, with over 298,000 complaints. And that only accounts for what gets reported. In my experience,
The Hiring Manager Doesn't Care Where You Studied I've reviewed hundreds of resumes for security analyst and incident response roles over the years. Here's what surprises most people: an online computer security degree carries the same weight as one earned on a physical campus
