Top White House Workers Tricked By Email Posers

Even those who are supposed to be trained on and be on high alert to cybersecurity trickery can fall victim to it. Several major media outlets reported that someone posed as several people working within the White House to trick others in the administration by using fake email messages. While the most serious information to be given up appears to be a personal email address, it could have been much worse. Those who fell for it include the former Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci and disappointingly, Homeland Security Advisor, Tom Bossert among others.

These incidents just demonstrate that it is always important to be on the lookout for pranksters and to read email messages carefully. Checking the sender’s email is important when you are giving out personal information. This can be accomplished rather quickly by clicking on the name. Most email clients will display the entire address in that way or by merely hovering the mouse pointer over the name in the “From” line.

Remember that your instincts are valuable. If you suspect any message could be trickery or phishing, it very well could be.

Bossert voluntarily gave up his personal email address when an invitation to a dinner arrived in his email that he thought came from Jared Kushner.  Scaramucci engaged in a back and forth email conversation with a fake Reince Priebus that could have gone far further into the black abyss than it did. Others who fell for the ruse include Donald Trump, Jr., Russian Ambassador, Jon Huntsman, and Eric Trump.

It’s unclear what the prankster was trying to prove. The White House is supposedly looking into it further, but it may be difficult for some to believe. There were recent disclosures by some within the Administration claiming it does not take cybersecurity seriously enough. In fact, eight people resigned from Trump’s cybersecurity council in August. In a letter obtained by Nextgov, the resignees stated that President Trump has “given insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend…”