Focuses on recognizing and countering manipulation tactics that attackers use to exploit human trust. Covers pretexting, baiting, tailgating, impersonation scams, and organizational defenses such as verification protocols, awareness campaigns, and incident reporting procedures.
posts
In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor social-engineered a help desk employee with a ten-minute phone call. The attacker didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability. They exploited a gap in employee policy — specifically, the identity verification process for password resets. A strong cybersecurity
A Single Stolen Password Cost One Company $60 Million In 2023, MGM Resorts got hit by a social engineering attack that started with a single phone call to the help desk. The threat actors impersonated an employee, reset credentials, and within hours had enough access to deploy ransomware across the
In January 2024, a threat actor used stolen credentials to compromise a Microsoft executive's email account — no malware, no zero-day exploit, just a password spray attack against a legacy test tenant that lacked multi-factor authentication. Microsoft disclosed the breach publicly, and it became one of the most talked-about
In November 2023, the international law firm Allen & Overy confirmed it was hit by a LockBit ransomware attack. Weeks earlier, a midsize firm in the southeastern U.S. paid a seven-figure ransom after a threat actor encrypted every client file on its network — and the firm never made headlines
A single employee at MGM Resorts answered a social engineering call in September 2023, and within hours a threat actor had enough access to trigger a shutdown that cost the company over $100 million. The attacker didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability. They exploited a person. That's
The Breach That Cost a Children's Charity Everything In 2023, Save the Children Federation disclosed it had been hit by the BianLian ransomware gang, which claimed to have stolen nearly 7 GB of sensitive data including financial records, medical information, and personal data. A global nonprofit with significant
A $9.5 Billion Problem That Keeps Getting Worse The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported $12.5 billion in cybercrime losses in 2023 — a figure that's only climbed since. If you're searching for answers about cyber security, you're asking the
A Leaderboard Didn't Stop the Breach — But It Helped In 2023, a midsize healthcare provider ran a standard annual compliance video for security training. Completion rates hit 94%. Two months later, a single employee clicked a phishing link that led to a ransomware attack affecting 130,000 patient
A Single Stolen Password Cost This Company $60 Million In 2023, MGM Resorts International was brought to its knees — not by a sophisticated zero-day exploit, but by a phone call. A threat actor called the help desk, impersonated an employee found on LinkedIn, and gained access to internal systems. The
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.
