Here’s another reason not to click on a suspicious or sexy-sounding e-mail: it could be a test from your boss.
Earlier this month, more than 6,000 employees of the New Taipei government in Taiwan received e-mails with the subject: “Justin Lee’s sex videos, download it, quick.” However, the messages had nothing to do with Lee, the socialite son of a wealthy businessman, who’s embroiled in a sex scandal. Instead, the e-mails came from the municipal government itself and were meant to test employee diligence, the Taipei Times reports.
According to the story, roughly 1 in 6 government employees could not resist temptation: of the 6,179 recipients, 996 opened the link. After doing so, they were advised to report to their superior and were required to take a two-hour course in data security.
The plan was likely conceived as a way to heighten digital security. The island’s Ministry of Defense warns that mainland Chinese hackers are using e-mails to plant viruses and steal information from government agencies.