You Clicked That? — A Letter to Our Organization’s Most Adventurous Mouse Fingers

There are two kinds of people in the workplace:

1. Those who look at an email titled “URGENT: Your password expires in 4 minutes, click here to prevent immediate corporate collapse” and think, “This seems suspicious.”
2. And those who think, “Finally, a sense of urgency. I’ve been waiting all morning to feel something.”

This blog post is dedicated to the second group. You know who you are. We in IT know who you are too. Not because we want to… but because you keep emailing us right after clicking.

The Obvious Spam Hall of Fame

Let’s take a moment to honor some of your greatest hits:

• Emails from “Micros0ft Supp0rt” sent from totally-legit-address-1234@definitelynotascam.biz
• Attachments titled Payroll-Adjustment-Final-v7-FINAL-FINAL2-THISONE.xlsm
• The CEO is emailing you personally from a Gmail account asking for gift cards
• The timeless classic:
  

  “Dear Esteemed Employee, you have been selected for a confidential financial opportunity”

At this point, we’re not running a security program — we’re running an anthropology study.

A Bold New Theory

After years of careful observation (and several stress-induced coffee habits), I’ve developed a theory:

Employees are not falling for phishing emails.
They are conducting independent red team exercises.

Think about it:

• You see a wildly suspicious link
• You click it anyway
• Then immediately report it to IT

That’s not a mistake. That’s initiative.

You’re not being tricked. You’re benchmarking our incident response time.

Honestly? Respect.

The Speed Run Strategy

Some of you have elevated this to an art form. It’s not just a click — it’s a full experience:

1. Receive suspicious email
2. Click the link within 2.3 seconds
3. Enter credentials (for realism)
4. Open a ticket titled: “Is this legit?”

You’re not just interacting with threats — you’re immersively role-playing them.

Meanwhile, IT is sprinting across the office (or frantically typing in Teams), wondering how we got here… again.

IT’s Perspective (A Documentary Style Voiceover)

“In their natural habitat, the user encounters a phishing email. Notice the curiosity. The hesitation is brief… gone now. They click. Fascinating. The IT team springs into action, fueled by caffeine and mild disbelief.”

We don’t blame you. Truly. But sometimes it feels like we’re watching someone stick a fork into an electrical outlet and then file a helpdesk ticket asking why it sparkled.

But Why Though?

Let’s be honest — the scams aren’t even trying anymore:

• Poor grammar translated through three languages and back
• Logos stretched like they’re having an identity crisis
• Threats escalating from “Please respond” to “The entire company will dissolve in 8 minutes.”

And still… click.

Somewhere out there is a phishing attacker thinking:

“Minimal effort seems to be working. Let’s aim lower.”

A Gentle Reminder (Wrapped in Sarcasm)

Before you click that next suspicious link, ask yourself:

• Does my company usually communicate emergencies through random links?
• Does the CEO need me specifically to buy gift cards right now?
• Is this email trying just a little too hard to create panic?
• Would future me enjoy explaining this to IT?

If the answer to any of those is “hmm… maybe this is weird,” congratulations — you’re developing cybersecurity instincts.

We love to see it.

In Closing

To everyone participating in these unplanned “security drills”:
Thank you for your enthusiasm, your curiosity, and your unwavering commitment to testing our patience and response times.

But if you’d like to contribute in a slightly less… interactive way:

Try not to click.

We know. Radical concept.

Next week’s blog post: “Reply All: A Powerful Tool or a Cry for Help?”