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.

Phishing awareness poster: medieval WANTED notice for the phishing email, a hooded envelope rogue with a wax seal face holding a fishing rod, on a charge sheet listing manufacturing urgency, impersonating a noble name, disguising where its links lead, and demanding passwords and gift cards — The poster, as issued. The artist asked the accused to sit still. It asked the artist to verify his account.

Take up arms

Printable at A4 and US Letter, free. Built for phishing awareness training, a workplace noticeboard or a classroom wall, and for the awareness campaign that has to say something new about phishing for the fourth year running.

Issue	PDF	Image	Slides
A4, full colour	PDF 634 KB	PNG 5.4 MB	—
US Letter, full colour	PDF 598 KB	PNG 5.2 MB	—
A4, black and white	PDF 716 KB	PNG 1.0 MB	—
US Letter, black and white	PDF 677 KB	PNG 918 KB	—
Web and newsletter	—	JPG 447 KB	—
Presentation slide	—	PNG 1.7 MB	PPTX 1.8 MB

Print from the PDF. Its parchment is lighter than the one on this page, because a screen is lit from behind and a sheet of paper is not: the darker ground comes out muddy on a colour printer and eats a cartridge doing it. The PNG is the screen edition. The black and white issue asks the least of any printer and is unchanged.

The black and white issue is for the printer down the corridor, the one with only the black cartridge left in it. Same accused, same charges, no gilding. The gold version drinks a cartridge to post one notice and hands you a grey sheet with a grey rogue on it, which flatters nobody, least of all him.

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

Manufacturing urgency. Everything that ever ruined a kingdom said URGENT. Deadline pressure is a technique, and slowing down defeats it. The same charge, in one picture.
Impersonating a noble name. Tap the name and the real address falls out. The name shown is chosen by whoever sent it; the address behind it is not.
Disguising where its links lead. Hover, and catch them lying. On a phone, long-press to preview the destination before you commit to it.
Demanding passwords and gift cards. No honest crown asks for either, and no legitimate institution settles its affairs in gift cards.

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.

Putting an October campaign together? This poster and everything else worth using is gathered on the Cybersecurity Awareness Month page.

The terms of issue

Free to use unaltered: at work, in a classroom, in a newsletter, on any noticeboard that will have them. Not for resale. The credit is already printed on the thing, so there is nothing for you to add.

That is the whole treaty. The crown's lawyers are disappointed by its brevity and have been informed that the matter is closed.

Requests, questions and corrections reach the court at [email protected].

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