This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, see how real-world phishing and ransomware attacks reveal why every employee plays a role in protection.
But here’s the catch: your CEO never sent it. This type of scheme is one of the costliest cybercrimes in the world. Instead of hacking networks, criminals impersonate trusted colleagues or partners, then pressure employees into wiring money, sharing credentials, or opening malicious links. The FBI reports that billions are lost each year to these kinds of scams, and they succeed because they prey on human trust. While IT teams install firewalls and monitor networks, the truth is simple: employees are both the greatest security risk and the strongest defense. Every click, every password, every decision we make determines the difference between business as usual and a costly data breach. “With decreasing cybersecurity budgets and increased attacks, cybersecurity has become everyone’s responsibility, from the CEO to the janitor to the accounting team,” said Ken Underhill, lead cybersecurity expert at TechnologyAdvice. “Everyone can help protect their organization.”
Shark Tank’ star: ‘I won’t be getting my money back’
Think you’ll never fall for a scam? Neither did Barbara Corcoran.
In 2020, the “Shark Tank” investor and real estate mogul lost nearly $400,000 after her bookkeeper received what appeared to be a routine invoice. The email appeared to come from Corcoran’s assistant, authorizing payment for a property renovation.
The catch? The sender’s address was off by a single character — an easy detail to miss. Believing the request was legitimate, the bookkeeper approved the transfer, only to discover the truth after looping in the real assistant and spotting the discrepancy.
“The detail that no one caught was that my assistant’s email address was misspelled by one letter, making it the fake email address set up by the scammers,” Corcoran told People magazine. “The scammer disappeared, and I’m told that it’s a common practice, and I won’t be getting the money back.”
Corcoran’s loss is a cautionary tale, but it’s far from unique. The same playbook — carefully crafted emails, subtle misspellings, urgent requests — is used daily against employees at companies of every size. In some cases, the consequences reach far beyond a single victim, rippling outward to disrupt entire industries.
Take the Colonial Pipeline attack in 2021. The largest fuel pipeline in the United States was forced offline after a single compromised password allowed attackers to gain access to the network. The result was a ransomware attack that cost millions and sparked fuel shortages across the East Coast. All it took was one successful phishing attempt to cause chaos felt nationwide.
One click is all it takes
The Colonial Pipeline shutdown and Barbara Corcoran’s $400,000 loss might feel like extreme cases. But the truth is that attacks of every scale often start the same way: with one employee, one inbox, and one decision.
Cybercriminals know this. They don’t need to outsmart complex systems when they can outsmart people. A single click on a bad link can bypass millions of dollars in security software, making employees the real gatekeepers of company data.
The most common ways employees inadvertently open the door to attackers:
- Phishing emails: Clicking malicious links or attachments disguised as legitimate requests.
- Weak or reused passwords: Giving attackers a master key that works across multiple accounts.
- Accidental data sharing: Sending confidential information to the wrong person or system.
- Neglecting updates: Failing to apply software patches that address known vulnerabilities.
Research consistently shows that human error contributes to most breaches — in some cases as high as 95%. For attackers, exploiting a moment of distraction is often easier and cheaper than breaking a firewall.
That’s why the strongest security strategies go beyond technology. They build a culture of awareness where every employee understands their role in protecting the organization.
“People are the prime targets for threat actors, but they can also be the most powerful defense,” Underhill explained. “Every employee who pauses, questions, or reports suspicious activity makes it harder for attackers to succeed.”
The post Cybersecurity Starts With You: Lessons From Phishing, Ransomware, and Real-World Mistakes appeared first on TechRepublic.
