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  3. the infosec people at my work are rioting because the Distant Corporate Overlord sent an email that scores 10/10 on the phishing scale (“We want to give you a present to thank you for all your hard work!

the infosec people at my work are rioting because the Distant Corporate Overlord sent an email that scores 10/10 on the phishing scale (“We want to give you a present to thank you for all your hard work!

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  • 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange

    the infosec people at my work are rioting because the Distant Corporate Overlord sent an email that scores 10/10 on the phishing scale (“We want to give you a present to thank you for all your hard work! [Click here] to claim your gift!”)

    pmb00cs@mastodon.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
    pmb00cs@mastodon.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
    pmb00cs@mastodon.online
    wrote last edited by
    #18

    @0xabad1dea there was practically a riot at a previous employer because they announced that for business performance reasons there would be no Christmas bonuses, then a couple of days later sent out a business wide email "as a thank you for all your hard work this year we're giving you a Christmas present, click here to receive it". The Christmas present turned out to be mandatory phishing awareness training for anyone who clicked the link.

    xinit@mastodon.coffeeX drgroftehauge@sigmoid.socialD 2 Replies Last reply
    0
    • lupinia@infosec.exchangeL lupinia@infosec.exchange

      @0xabad1dea This heavily overlaps with a wider societal problem of legitimate customer service communication being largely indistinguishable from scams to most people - intentional confusion and constant change, huge amounts of information disclosure required to do anything without always knowing why (and hesitation can be penalized), and so on. Pretty much entirely by design, in an attempt to minimize anyone's desire to ever contact companies directly.

      diffrentcolours@tech.lgbtD This user is from outside of this forum
      diffrentcolours@tech.lgbtD This user is from outside of this forum
      diffrentcolours@tech.lgbt
      wrote last edited by
      #19

      @lupinia @0xabad1dea And encouraging people to write their emails with an LLM to "sound professional" means that they end up reading like the emails that scammers write with an LLM to "sound professional".

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • pmb00cs@mastodon.onlineP pmb00cs@mastodon.online

        @0xabad1dea there was practically a riot at a previous employer because they announced that for business performance reasons there would be no Christmas bonuses, then a couple of days later sent out a business wide email "as a thank you for all your hard work this year we're giving you a Christmas present, click here to receive it". The Christmas present turned out to be mandatory phishing awareness training for anyone who clicked the link.

        xinit@mastodon.coffeeX This user is from outside of this forum
        xinit@mastodon.coffeeX This user is from outside of this forum
        xinit@mastodon.coffee
        wrote last edited by
        #20

        @pmb00cs
        I'm angry just reading this.
        @0xabad1dea

        pmb00cs@mastodon.onlineP 2 Replies Last reply
        0
        • guigsy@mstdn.socialG guigsy@mstdn.social

          @0xabad1dea I got a similar email... from IT. It was basically, "Congratulations! You've been selected as a trial user for our new authentication system. Please click here to go to a dodgy URL and fill in all your existing credentials." With no contact listed. And no information about it on the intranet.

          It took some digging before I found someone in IT support that could verify that it wasn't a phish.

          tomdb@mastodon-belgium.beT This user is from outside of this forum
          tomdb@mastodon-belgium.beT This user is from outside of this forum
          tomdb@mastodon-belgium.be
          wrote last edited by
          #21

          @guigsy @0xabad1dea Even worse when it originates from a department that should know better.

          guigsy@mstdn.socialG 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • xinit@mastodon.coffeeX xinit@mastodon.coffee

            @pmb00cs
            I'm angry just reading this.
            @0xabad1dea

            pmb00cs@mastodon.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
            pmb00cs@mastodon.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
            pmb00cs@mastodon.online
            wrote last edited by
            #22

            @xinit @0xabad1dea it did, eventually, illicit an apology from senior leadership for the "poor timing" of it all.

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • jwdt@mastodon.socialJ jwdt@mastodon.social

              @0xabad1dea then there's ones from banks, government things, big brands etc.

              c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.ioC This user is from outside of this forum
              c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.ioC This user is from outside of this forum
              c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.io
              wrote last edited by
              #23

              @jwdt @0xabad1dea tertiary health care providers that you’ve never heard of but apparently the anesthesiologist doesn’t work for the hospital not bill through the hospital and in this modern day decides to email and text you to demand payment

              c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.ioC 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange

                phishing training really doesn’t spend enough time on “how to structure your mass corporate communications in such a way that your employees won’t conclude that you communicate exactly like scammers and still expect a reply so they’d better assume scammy emails are legitimate”

                brnrd@bsd.networkB This user is from outside of this forum
                brnrd@bsd.networkB This user is from outside of this forum
                brnrd@bsd.network
                wrote last edited by
                #24

                @0xabad1dea I've tried to get them to compile statistics on internal comms that were reported as Phishing so we could try hunt down the perps. Potentially creating a wall-of-shame for them.

                Big nope (zero surprise).

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • xinit@mastodon.coffeeX xinit@mastodon.coffee

                  @pmb00cs
                  I'm angry just reading this.
                  @0xabad1dea

                  pmb00cs@mastodon.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
                  pmb00cs@mastodon.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
                  pmb00cs@mastodon.online
                  wrote last edited by
                  #25

                  @xinit @0xabad1dea funnily enough it wasn't as bad as when they decided to save money by switching from Yorkshire Tea to Tetley Tea. That decision lasted about a month.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange

                    phishing training really doesn’t spend enough time on “how to structure your mass corporate communications in such a way that your employees won’t conclude that you communicate exactly like scammers and still expect a reply so they’d better assume scammy emails are legitimate”

                    somethingcat@fedia.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                    somethingcat@fedia.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                    somethingcat@fedia.social
                    wrote last edited by
                    #26

                    @0xabad1dea During the summer before I started college, I got an email from (what appeared to be) a separate health care provider telling me to click the link and enter my social security number to register myself in their system. This was from an external email address, and I received no notice about it from the college, but after looking around it was actually legitimate.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange

                      the infosec people at my work are rioting because the Distant Corporate Overlord sent an email that scores 10/10 on the phishing scale (“We want to give you a present to thank you for all your hard work! [Click here] to claim your gift!”)

                      the_turtle@mastodon.sdf.orgT This user is from outside of this forum
                      the_turtle@mastodon.sdf.orgT This user is from outside of this forum
                      the_turtle@mastodon.sdf.org
                      wrote last edited by
                      #27

                      @0xabad1dea is your CEO a deposed Nigerian prime minister or something?

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • tomdb@mastodon-belgium.beT tomdb@mastodon-belgium.be

                        @guigsy @0xabad1dea Even worse when it originates from a department that should know better.

                        guigsy@mstdn.socialG This user is from outside of this forum
                        guigsy@mstdn.socialG This user is from outside of this forum
                        guigsy@mstdn.social
                        wrote last edited by
                        #28

                        @TomDB @0xabad1dea yeah. I checked colleagues and nobody else had received the message. It looked very phishy. It said "you must do this within 7 days"... so I ignored it. Only to receive an identical message, giving me another 7 days. After a few weeks, I was motivated enough to stop the spam and make the effort to find out if it was legit. Extremely poor infosec practices from my IT department.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • lupinia@infosec.exchangeL lupinia@infosec.exchange

                          @0xabad1dea This heavily overlaps with a wider societal problem of legitimate customer service communication being largely indistinguishable from scams to most people - intentional confusion and constant change, huge amounts of information disclosure required to do anything without always knowing why (and hesitation can be penalized), and so on. Pretty much entirely by design, in an attempt to minimize anyone's desire to ever contact companies directly.

                          misusecase@twit.socialM This user is from outside of this forum
                          misusecase@twit.socialM This user is from outside of this forum
                          misusecase@twit.social
                          wrote last edited by
                          #29

                          @lupinia @0xabad1dea When so much “legal, legitimate” business is basically a scam, how can anyone tell?

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • pmb00cs@mastodon.onlineP pmb00cs@mastodon.online

                            @0xabad1dea there was practically a riot at a previous employer because they announced that for business performance reasons there would be no Christmas bonuses, then a couple of days later sent out a business wide email "as a thank you for all your hard work this year we're giving you a Christmas present, click here to receive it". The Christmas present turned out to be mandatory phishing awareness training for anyone who clicked the link.

                            drgroftehauge@sigmoid.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
                            drgroftehauge@sigmoid.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
                            drgroftehauge@sigmoid.social
                            wrote last edited by
                            #30

                            @pmb00cs @0xabad1dea Love your IT department for that little "fuck u" Mr CEO email

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • K This user is from outside of this forum
                              K This user is from outside of this forum
                              katieloves2read@mastodon.social
                              wrote last edited by
                              #31

                              @s0 @0xabad1dea I had the same experience multiple years in a row.
                              Vague "click now to get started with your experience" button in an external email that wasn't white listed. Turned out to be cyber security training.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange

                                the infosec people at my work are rioting because the Distant Corporate Overlord sent an email that scores 10/10 on the phishing scale (“We want to give you a present to thank you for all your hard work! [Click here] to claim your gift!”)

                                tom_ofb@23.socialT This user is from outside of this forum
                                tom_ofb@23.socialT This user is from outside of this forum
                                tom_ofb@23.social
                                wrote last edited by
                                #32

                                @0xabad1dea I mean, it must be a test, right? A free gift, from corpo? C'mon.

                                0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange

                                  the infosec people at my work are rioting because the Distant Corporate Overlord sent an email that scores 10/10 on the phishing scale (“We want to give you a present to thank you for all your hard work! [Click here] to claim your gift!”)

                                  terrybtwo@ohai.socialT This user is from outside of this forum
                                  terrybtwo@ohai.socialT This user is from outside of this forum
                                  terrybtwo@ohai.social
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #33

                                  @0xabad1dea This pisses me off so much!
                                  Not (for me) internal corporate, but marketing depts. Notably Barclays sending “Dear customer click here for your wonderful offer” emails.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • tom_ofb@23.socialT tom_ofb@23.social

                                    @0xabad1dea I mean, it must be a test, right? A free gift, from corpo? C'mon.

                                    0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 This user is from outside of this forum
                                    0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 This user is from outside of this forum
                                    0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #34

                                    @Tom_ofB I'm pretty sure it's just corporate logo swag distribution being framed as "a thank-you gift"

                                    tom_ofb@23.socialT 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange0 0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange

                                      @Tom_ofB I'm pretty sure it's just corporate logo swag distribution being framed as "a thank-you gift"

                                      tom_ofb@23.socialT This user is from outside of this forum
                                      tom_ofb@23.socialT This user is from outside of this forum
                                      tom_ofb@23.social
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #35

                                      @0xabad1dea ohhh, I get it. "the gift is free" is just lossy transmission, the full meaning was
                                      "the gift is you can be free advertising for the company". That's awesome, double plus good, really.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.ioC c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.io

                                        @jwdt @0xabad1dea tertiary health care providers that you’ve never heard of but apparently the anesthesiologist doesn’t work for the hospital not bill through the hospital and in this modern day decides to email and text you to demand payment

                                        c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.ioC This user is from outside of this forum
                                        c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.ioC This user is from outside of this forum
                                        c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.io
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #36

                                        @jwdt @0xabad1dea small business tax guy deciding to modernize and calling his secure file drop through some SaaS provider securefile and that being the subdomain on it. Phish alarms blaring, but we got the domain from him in conversation and he’s normal so it just doesn’t register to him that it sounds very bad.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • rogerbw@discordian.socialR rogerbw@discordian.social

                                          @0xabad1dea Every few months, it seems, we get email at work from an address we've never seen before, along the lines of "log into the new HR portal at [dodgy external address]", signed "HR department". Nothing to connect it to this specific employer, no names, etc. Every time I report it as obvious phishing. Every time it turns out the great and powerful overlords have signed a new contract with an even dodgier provider.

                                          utf_7@mastodon.socialU This user is from outside of this forum
                                          utf_7@mastodon.socialU This user is from outside of this forum
                                          utf_7@mastodon.social
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #37

                                          @RogerBW @0xabad1dea

                                          i send valid links to colleagues throguh https://shadify.link/

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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