A recent security test has some Tacoma Public Schools employees upset.
The employees received an email, which appeared to be from HR, saying the school district had partnered with Amazon and that the employees could get holiday discounts and free shipping.
But it was fake — part of a monthly drill to train employees how to spot email fraud.
“This is purely an educational program that helps employees protect their personal information, and also helps the district prevent unauthorized access to our systems,” said Dan Voelpel, Tacoma Public Schools’ spokesperson.
Voelpel says there were ways to know if the email was real or fake and that employees have been trained to spot those flags.
“If you hover over the person’s name who sent the email to you, the actual address of the person who sent the message pops up and this would have been easy to tell this was a phishing email,” he said.
He added that the district understands the frustration, and they did send employees a letter Tuesday explaining that was not the intent.
“It’s not a success if we’re making our employees upset and frustrated,” Voelpel said. “That’s certainly not what we’re intending to do.”
Voelpel says similar email tests have helped cut the number of employees who click through by more than half, but the enticing holiday offer tricked more district staff and angered quite a few.
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