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Security Awareness

Develop a strong security mindset with articles focused on security awareness principles, social engineering defense, safe browsing habits, password hygiene, and recognizing manipulation tactics used by attackers targeting human vulnerabilities.

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Phishing Awareness

How to Recognize a Phishing Email Before You Click

The Email That Cost One Company $100 Million In 2019, Toyota Boshoku Corporation lost $37 million in a single business email compromise attack. A threat actor impersonated a senior executive, sent a convincing email, and an employee wired the funds. No malware. No zero-day exploit. Just one phishing email that

Carl B. Johnson May 22, 2026 6 min read
Cybersecurity Best Practices

Cybersecurity Best Practices for Employees in 2026

One Click Cost MGM Resorts $100 Million In September 2023, a threat actor called Scattered Spider called the MGM Resorts help desk, impersonated an employee found on LinkedIn, and convinced IT staff to reset credentials. The result: ten days of operational chaos, encrypted systems, and an estimated $100 million in

Carl B. Johnson May 20, 2026 5 min read
Incident Response Plan Template

Incident Response Plan Template: Build Yours in 2026

A Ransomware Attack Every 11 Seconds — and Most Victims Had No Plan When Colonial Pipeline got hit in May 2021, the company paid a $4.4 million ransom within hours. Their CEO later told a Senate committee that the decision was made under extreme pressure, without a well-rehearsed playbook. If

Carl B. Johnson May 16, 2026 5 min read
Phishing

What Is Phishing? A Security Pro's Real-World Guide

The Email That Cost One Company $100 Million In 2019, Toyota Boshoku Corporation lost $37 million in a single business email compromise attack. A threat actor impersonated a senior executive, convinced a finance employee to change wire transfer details, and the money vanished. That attack started with something deceptively simple

Carl B. Johnson May 15, 2026 5 min read
NIST Standards

NIST Standards: What Actually Matters for Your Security

The Framework Everyone References but Few Actually Implement In 2023, the MOVEit Transfer breach ripped through over 2,600 organizations worldwide. Many of those companies had compliance checklists. Many referenced NIST standards in their security policies. And yet, basic access controls and patch management — core tenets of NIST guidance — were

Carl B. Johnson May 13, 2026 6 min read
CISA Cybersecurity Guidelines

CISA Cybersecurity Guidelines: What Actually Matters

In January 2024, CISA disclosed that a threat actor had exploited vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure products to breach the agency's own systems. Let that sink in. The federal agency responsible for defending U.S. critical infrastructure got hit. If CISA itself isn't immune, your organization

Carl B. Johnson May 11, 2026 5 min read
Smishing Attacks

Smishing Attack Examples: Real Texts That Stole Millions

In 2023, the FBI's IC3 reported over $5.6 billion in losses from phishing and its variants — and smishing, the SMS-based cousin, drove a massive chunk of that number. I've watched smishing evolve from clumsy "you won a prize" texts into sophisticated, multi-step social

Carl B. Johnson May 10, 2026 5 min read
Shadow IT Risks

Shadow IT Risks: The Threats Hiding in Your Network

In 2023, a midsize healthcare company discovered that an employee had been syncing patient records to a personal Dropbox account for over two years. No malicious intent — just convenience. The result was a HIPAA violation, a six-figure settlement, and a brutal lesson in shadow IT risks that the organization'

Carl B. Johnson May 04, 2026 5 min read
Cybersecurity Best Practices

Cybersecurity Best Practices for Employees in 2026

One Click Cost MGM Resorts $100 Million In September 2023, a threat actor called Scattered Spider called MGM Resorts' IT help desk, impersonated an employee found on LinkedIn, and gained access to the company's entire network. The result: over $100 million in losses, days of disrupted operations,

Carl B. Johnson May 03, 2026 6 min read