back to article Taiwan's civil servants caught by sexy email trap

Some 1,000 sex-obsessed civil servants in Taiwan have been sent on an internet security course after being caught in a kind of online honey trap set up by their local government employer. The government of New Taipei City, next door to the Taiwanese capital, sent an email to its 6,000 employees in order to test their resolve, …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Phil Kingston
    Thumb Up

    Not a harsh lesson at all.

    User education is the biggest threat. Good to see one organisation tackling it.

    1. Ole Juul

      It'll probably work

      On the other hand, I can't help but think that there will now be employees clicking on what is obviously malware in the hopes of getting two hours off work.

    2. LarsG
      Meh

      They should do this to the public and private sector. Sitting on a course with the other pervs will do the trick, including you Boss and his Boss and the CEO.

      The threat of it happening again will be enough.

      1. JetSetJim
        Black Helicopters

        already done

        My current employer also recently did something similar as an "awareness exercise" sending phishing emails of some description. This was to work emails, not personal ones so even if they cared about you accessing personal emails it wasn't an issue. Not sure what the results of the experiment was beyond "some folks were caught out" and a follow up email with a "Durn Noobs - falling for these tricks: <list>".

      2. Psyx
        Thumb Up

        "Sitting on a course with the other pervs will do the trick, including you Boss and his Boss and the CEO."

        In a glass-walled conference room, in central offices, with a A2 sign outside saying "Porn Addiction Awareness Class"

        1. Thomas 4
          Devil

          After all

          You can't spell "internet security course" without intercourse.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: After all

            To quote a Defcon presenter from last year:

            "We shouldn't be saying 'stupid users' if we [security] have never bothered to educate them".

            Admittedly, the users falling for this is pretty ridiculous... but I think that perspective is an important thing to keep in mind as we go about our work.

    3. Arctic fox
      Flame

      "Those who clicked on the message will be forced to sit through................

      ...................a two hour course on internet security." Even it you force these people to sit through that course again and again and again, it will not make the slightest bit of difference to the substantial minority who cannot be told (even if you combined it with electrodes attached to sensitive body-parts). The issue of "don't click on those (for example) "free porn" links has been done to death in the mainstream media and the idiots still do it. What the hell the answer is I do not pretend to know. Anyone got any ideas - apart from 14000 volts in the goolies?

      1. Thomas 4
        IT Angle

        Re: "Those who clicked on the message will be forced to sit through................

        Yes, I do have one suggestion. Make speakers a mandatory requirement for all PCs. Then the next time someone clicks on a link for high quality adult relaxation therapy, trigger a macro that cranks the PC volume to full and then disables the mute function.

        Works very well in cubical office environments.

        1. Arctic fox
          Thumb Up

          @Thomas 4 "Works very well in cubical office environments"

          I think that you may be on to something old chap, followed perhaps by uploading the "victims" reaction to YouTube and watching it go viral. If that however still does not work I insist on the aforementioned 14000 volts to the goolies!

  2. Dazed and Confused
    Joke

    Over here

    They'd use it as a cheap redundancy program.

    email smut to staff, fire those to who open it. No need to pay the redundancy.

    The perfect solution.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Over here

      Why the joke icon?

      This is the back-up plan if the unfair dismissal laws cannot be repealed.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Over here

        The Joke icon has lost its meaning these days. Originally the Reg created it for the benefit of Americans who couldn't quite tap into British sarcastic humour

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WTF

    So not only were they going to watch a "sex" video on government time but quite possibly, if the charges are factual, a rape video... Well done those civil servants.

  4. Dr Scrum Master
    Joke

    reminds me of an army training exercise where porn mags were left lying around an area

    the intention being to find out if squaddies would pick up the mags which could easily have contained, err, booby traps left by Soviet forces

    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Joke

      Well one way or the other something would go off in their hand :)

  5. Triggerfish

    RE: Over here

    My first job emailed smut by a manager, opened it.

    Sacked for having the email on my system. My email records including the ones showing who emailed it to me, apparently wiped immediately, completly barred from access to any evidence marched out of building, 1 week before I would have recieved my redundancy.

    1. Juan Inamillion

      Re: RE: Over here

      Constructive dismissal? Entrapment?

    2. Robert Moore
      Happy

      Re: RE: Over here

      If you ever accidentally open smut from a manager. Run, don't walk to HR, and report said manager.

      If you can pull it off, act deeply offended.

      You might get the manager sacked. :)

      Of course I just don't open any email from my manager. It seems the best option.

      1. Triggerfish

        Re: RE: Over here

        I did try, but it wasn't that easy I wasn't well paid, didnt know really what to do, the local citizen advice was terrible. They rolled out expensive lawyers I got shafted.

        The company were not the nicest this is a place were they would try and bully people into working bank hols by bringing them in and looking through cv's if they refused, they shafted another worker for overtime, etc HR was there to protect the management not the staff.

        However for those who believe in Karma

        6 months or so later I was sitting on an Asian beach, a few months left and a job to go back to when I returned, and talking to a friend who worked there who explained that some of the directors were being investigated for fraud, and that the manager who had been very instrumental in my shafting, and who had got rid of some consultants in a shitty way now had those consultants as his employers, they immediately gave him the sack in as a humiliating way as they could get away with.

        Laugh, I think a bit of wee came out.

  6. Stevie

    Heh!

    As Benny Hill would say: "Blurry iriots!"

  7. Delbert
    Facepalm

    Sound idea

    Not that I would expect it to have a long term effect but awareness of the problems of security can only be a good thing. One company (no names to save embaressment) employee recieved a suspicious email and forwarded it to IT with the stupidly dangerous suggestion to 'please check' which IT did and infected the system shutting it down for 48 hours so not everybody is immune from acts of foolishness!

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like