Tag

Zero Trust

Understand the Zero Trust security model, which operates on the principle of never trust, always verify. Posts cover Zero Trust architecture, identity verification, micro-segmentation, least-privilege access, and practical steps for implementing Zero Trust frameworks across enterprise environments.

posts

Cybersecurity Best Practices

Cybersecurity Best Practices for Employees in 2026

Your Employees Are the Breach — 68% of the Time The 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that 68% of breaches involved a non-malicious human element — someone clicked a phishing link, reused a password, or misconfigured a system. That number has held stubbornly steady for years. If you're

Carl B. Johnson Apr 26, 2026 5 min read
Shadow IT Risks

Shadow IT Risks: The Invisible Threat Draining Your Budget

A Marketing Team's Slack Alternative Nearly Took Down an Entire Hospital Network In 2023, a regional healthcare system discovered that its marketing department had been using an unapproved messaging platform for over 14 months. Nobody in IT knew. The platform stored patient-adjacent data with no encryption, no access

Carl B. Johnson Apr 16, 2026 5 min read
Mobile Device Security Policy

Mobile Device Security Policy: What Yours Is Missing

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:

Carl B. Johnson Apr 15, 2026 5 min read
Ransomware Recovery

Ransomware Recovery Steps: A Battle-Tested Playbook

The Clock Starts the Moment You See the Ransom Note In February 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the United States — was hit by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group. The attack disrupted pharmacy operations, delayed insurance claims, and affected an estimated one-third of all Americans&

Carl B. Johnson Apr 14, 2026 5 min read
VPN Best Practices

VPN Best Practices: What Actually Protects You in 2026

In early 2024, threat actors exploited critical vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure VPN appliances so aggressively that CISA issued an emergency directive ordering federal agencies to disconnect the devices entirely. Not patch them. Disconnect them. That moment should have been a wake-up call: having a VPN isn't enough.

Carl B. Johnson Apr 12, 2026 5 min read
Third Party Risk

Third Party Vendor Cybersecurity Risk: A 2026 Guide

When Target lost 40 million credit card records in 2013, the attackers didn't breach Target directly. They compromised an HVAC vendor. Over a decade later, the playbook hasn't changed — it's just gotten more devastating. Third party vendor cybersecurity risk is now the single fastest-growing

Carl B. Johnson Apr 07, 2026 6 min read
Securing Employee Mobile Devices

Securing Employee Mobile Devices: A Practical Guide

In 2023, Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report found that 74% of all breaches involved the human element — and mobile devices have become the primary attack surface for exploiting that weakness. I've watched organizations spend six figures on perimeter defenses while their employees check corporate email on

Carl B. Johnson Apr 07, 2026 6 min read
Cybersecurity Terms Explained

Cybersecurity Terms Explained: A Practical Guide

Last year, a hospital administrator told me she ignored an alert about a credential stuffing attack because she didn't know what that phrase meant. Three days later, her organization was dealing with a ransomware incident that shut down patient scheduling for two weeks. The jargon gap in cybersecurity

Carl B. Johnson Mar 31, 2026 5 min read
NIST Cybersecurity Framework

NIST Cybersecurity Framework: A Practical Guide for 2026

The Framework 83% of Organizations Claim to Follow — But Few Actually Implement When the City of Dallas was hit by a devastating ransomware attack in May 2023, investigations revealed systemic gaps in risk management, incident response, and access controls — the exact areas the NIST Cybersecurity Framework was designed to address.

Carl B. Johnson Mar 28, 2026 6 min read