The email you just acted on by following an hyperlink was a fake phishing email. As a potential participant to CyberSEED’15, you were included in this exercise to raise awareness about phishing threats and to help sidestep real attacks. This exercise is organized under the auspices of CyberSEED’15 organized by the Comcast Center of Excellence for Security Innovation (CSI). Please do not share your experience with colleagues, so they can learn too.

Our hope is that this exercise will help educate our attendees prior to the event date. Did you notice any of the odd clues to showing it was a fake phishing email? It could have been recognized by the oddly formed email address using a .early-checkin.com address instead of .org, the strange alternation of capital and lowercase lettering, and the irregularity in the sign-off compared to official CyberSEED emails. More information on phishing is presented below. You can look forward to hearing more about the results of this effort on CyberSEED 2015’s kick off on October 29th.

 Stay Alert for Phishing Emails
   Scam emails put you and your employer at risk

This was a test – a real phishing email could have given hackers access to sensitive information, compromised your company’s network, or downloaded a virus

Beware of These Warning Signs

• Unsolicited emails that urge you to act quickly
• Emails that ask for private data, including account numbers and personal information (social security numbers, license numbers, etc.)
• Random requests to reset or update passwords

Email Safety Tips

• Never reply to an unsolicited email that requests sensitive information
• Verify claims and offers via trusted websites or known phone numbers
• Do not click or respond to suspicious emails
• Ask your IT department for advice if you’re unsure