Tag

Threat Detection

Stay current on methods and technologies used to identify cyber threats before they escalate. Topics include intrusion detection systems, anomaly monitoring, threat intelligence feeds, endpoint detection, and behavioral analysis techniques for proactive defense.

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Incident Response

How to Respond to a Cyberattack: A Step-by-Step Plan

In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a social engineering attack that started with a single phone call to their help desk. The threat actor impersonated an employee, gained access to internal systems, and deployed ransomware across the enterprise. The entire operation took roughly 10 minutes to

Carl B. Johnson Jul 11, 2026 5 min read
Phishing Links

What Is a Phishing Link? How to Spot and Stop Them

Last year, a mid-size accounting firm in Ohio lost $1.2 million after a single employee clicked one link in a spoofed Microsoft 365 email. The link looked like a routine password-reset page. It wasn't. Within 90 minutes, a threat actor had harvested credentials, bypassed weak authentication, and

Carl B. Johnson Jun 28, 2026 5 min read
Insider Threats

How to Prevent Insider Threats Before They Cost Millions

In 2022, a former employee at Cash App's parent company, Block, downloaded reports containing the personal information of 8.2 million customers — months after they'd left the company. Their access had never been revoked. That single oversight triggered SEC filings, lawsuits, and reputational damage that took

Carl B. Johnson Jun 23, 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
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
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
Insider Threats

Malicious Insider vs Negligent Insider: The Real Threat

One Employee Stole Data. The Other Just Clicked a Link. Both Cost Millions. In 2022, a former Amazon employee was convicted for her role in the Capital One breach that exposed over 100 million customer records. That same year, the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that 82% of breaches

Carl B. Johnson May 13, 2026 5 min read
Spoofing

Spoofing Attacks: How They Work and How to Stop Them

A CFO Wired $25 Million Because of a Spoofed Video Call In early 2024, a finance worker at a multinational firm in Hong Kong transferred $25.6 million after joining a video conference call where every other participant — including the company's CFO — was a deepfake. The threat actors

Carl B. Johnson Jan 17, 2026 7 min read