Geoffrey A. Fowler wrote an interesting (and lighthearted) article for The Wall Street Journal on the tricks that ethical hackers use to teach company employees a cybersecurity lesson. Companies hire these ethical hackers to test their employees; after the employees inevitably fail, “[t]hose who click get a [] stern warning[] from their tech departments.”
One such tactic is to send an e-mail out that reads “check out these kitties!”, with the promise of more cat pictures to follow. Clicking on the link rewards the employee with a picture of Doctor Zaius–a cat with a purple mohawk–and the aforementioned warning from IT.
According to Fowler, similar tactics include leaving compromised thumb drives marked “confidential” in the parking lot and gaining physical access to computer systems by using disguises such as “package deliveryman and fire marshal.”
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