The Royal Armoury · Notice the First

WANTED: The Phishing Email

Study the likeness well, subject. It will not study you. It sends the same letter to four million people and calls each one "Valued Customer".

A free phishing awareness poster from the crown: the accused as tried and convicted in open court, its charges recorded for the public good. Print it for the office, the classroom, the corridor by the kettle; anywhere the clicking happens.

Take up arms

The PowerPoint slide arrives with speaker notes from the court: what each charge means in plain terms, what to do when a subject confesses to clicking, and where these isles report their phishing. Drop it into any awareness deck; the King asks only his name on the door.

The charges, for the record

• Urgency. Everything that ever ruined a kingdom said URGENT.
• A noble name over a gutter address. Tap the name; the beard falls off.
• Links that do not go where they promise. Hover, and catch them lying.
• Demanding passwords and gift cards. No honest crown asks for either.

If sighted: click nothing, reply to nothing. Report it, delete it, and never speak of how close you came. Subjects of these isles may forward the accused to [email protected], where the National Cyber Security Centre keeps the gallows; its texting cousin is marched to 7726.

The full proceedings are on record: the Trial of a Phishing Email, including the defence offered by the spam filter that missed it.

The terms of issue

Free to use in security awareness programmes, presentations, classrooms and newsletters, with attribution to kingofcybersecurity.com. Not for resale.

For attribution in writing or in links, this suffices:

More notices are being forged. The kingdom has, regrettably, no shortage of suspects.