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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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Data Breach Notification Requirements

Data Breach Notification Requirements: A 2026 Guide

In February 2024, Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack that exposed the protected health information of approximately 100 million Americans. The fallout wasn't just technical — it was regulatory. Congressional hearings, state attorney general investigations, and an avalanche of class-action lawsuits followed, largely because stakeholders questioned whether data breach

Carl B. Johnson Jun 27, 2026 6 min read
NIST Standards

NIST Standards: What They Actually Mean for Your Security

A $4.88 Million Average — and a Framework Most Organizations Ignore IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report pegged the global average at $4.88 million per incident. That's a record. Yet when I ask mid-size companies whether they've implemented any NIST standards,

Carl B. Johnson Jun 24, 2026 5 min read
Data Breach Response Plan

Data Breach Response Plan: What Actually Works in 2026

The Breach That Didn't Have to Cost $350 Million When Equifax disclosed its 2017 breach affecting 147 million people, the eventual settlement topped $700 million. But here's what most people forget: the vulnerability that attackers exploited had a patch available months before the breach. Equifax didn&

Carl B. Johnson Jun 22, 2026 5 min read
Define Cyber

Define Cyber: What It Really Means in 2026

In February 2024, Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted pharmacy operations across the entire United States for weeks. UnitedHealth Group eventually disclosed the breach may have affected up to 100 million individuals. If you still think the word "cyber" is just a vague buzzword tossed around

Carl B. Johnson Jun 21, 2026 5 min read
Shadow IT Risks

Shadow IT Risks: The Threats Hiding in Your Network

A Single Spreadsheet Cost One Hospital $3 Million In 2023, a healthcare employee uploaded patient records to an unauthorized cloud spreadsheet tool to "make things easier" for her team. Nobody in IT knew about it. No encryption, no access controls, no audit trail. When that tool suffered a

Carl B. Johnson Jun 20, 2026 6 min read
Cyber Hygiene

Cyber Hygiene Definition: What It Means and Why It Matters

In 2024, the average cost of a data breach hit $4.88 million globally, according to IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report. The root cause in most cases wasn't some exotic zero-day exploit. It was the basics — unpatched systems, reused passwords, employees clicking phishing links.

Carl B. Johnson Jun 16, 2026 5 min read
Data Breach Response Plan

Data Breach Response Plan: Build One Before You Need It

The Breach That Exposed 147 Million People — and a Broken Plan When Equifax disclosed its 2017 breach, the company technically had a data breach response plan. They had security teams, legal counsel, and a PR department. What they didn't have was a plan that actually worked under pressure.

Carl B. Johnson Jun 10, 2026 6 min read
Cross-Site Scripting

Cross-Site Scripting Explained: What Attackers See

A Single Input Field Took Down British Airways In 2018, British Airways disclosed a breach that compromised the personal and financial data of approximately 380,000 customers. The attack vector? A modified script injected into their website's payment page. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office

Carl B. Johnson Jun 08, 2026 5 min read
Cybersecurity Definition

Cybersecurity Definition: What It Really Means in 2026

In 2024, the average cost of a data breach hit $4.88 million — the highest figure IBM had ever recorded. That number didn't climb because organizations lacked firewalls. It climbed because most people fundamentally misunderstand what cybersecurity actually is. If you've searched for a cybersecurity definition,

Carl B. Johnson Jun 05, 2026 5 min read
Cybersecurity Definition

Cybersecurity Definition: What It Really Means in 2026

In 2023, MGM Resorts lost roughly $100 million after a social engineering phone call — a single phone call — gave threat actors the foothold they needed to deploy ransomware across the company's entire infrastructure. If you Google "cybersecurity definition," you'll get a tidy textbook answer

Carl B. Johnson Jun 04, 2026 5 min read