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 Terms Explained

Cybersecurity Terms Explained: A No-Nonsense Guide

During a breach investigation last year, I watched a CFO stare blankly at an incident response report and ask, "What's lateral movement? What does 'exfiltration' mean? Can someone just speak English?" That moment crystallized something I've known for two decades: the cybersecurity

Carl B. Johnson Mar 28, 2026 6 min read
Phishing

Phishing in 2026: What's Actually Working Against It

The Threat That Refuses to Die In January 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its annual report showing that phishing and its variants remained the number one reported cybercrime by volume — for the fifth consecutive year. Over 298,000 complaints. That number only counts the

Carl B. Johnson Jan 18, 2026 7 min read
Ransomware Attack Prevention

Ransomware Attack Prevention: A 2025 Survival Guide

In February 2024, Change Healthcare — a company that processes roughly one-third of all U.S. medical claims — was hit by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group. The fallout was staggering: $872 million in direct costs reported by UnitedHealth Group in a single quarter, pharmacies unable to process prescriptions, and the personal

Carl B. Johnson Aug 11, 2025 7 min read
Ransomware

How Ransomware Spreads: 7 Attack Vectors in 2025

In February 2024, Change Healthcare — the payment processor handling roughly one-third of all U.S. medical claims — was hit by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group. The result: $872 million in direct costs reported by UnitedHealth Group, months of disrupted pharmacy operations, and the personal health data of over 100 million

Carl B. Johnson Jul 15, 2025 7 min read
Insider Threats

How to Prevent Insider Threats: A Practical Guide

In May 2022, a Yahoo research scientist named Qian Sang downloaded roughly 570,000 pages of proprietary source code to his personal devices — minutes after receiving a job offer from a competitor. Yahoo's internal systems flagged it, but only after the data had already left. That incident is

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2025 7 min read
Zero Trust

What Is Zero Trust? A Practical Guide for 2025

The Breach That Made "Trust But Verify" Obsolete In January 2024, Microsoft disclosed that a Russian state-sponsored threat actor known as Midnight Blizzard had compromised executive email accounts — not by exploiting some exotic zero-day, but by password-spraying a legacy test tenant account that lacked multi-factor authentication. One overlooked

Carl B. Johnson Jun 12, 2025 8 min read
Work From Home Cybersecurity

Work From Home Cybersecurity: A 2025 Survival Guide

In March 2024, a single remote employee at a midsize financial firm clicked a link in what looked like a Microsoft Teams notification. Within 72 hours, a threat actor had moved laterally across the company's network, exfiltrated 1.2 million customer records, and deployed ransomware that locked every

Carl B. Johnson May 25, 2025 7 min read