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The original was posted on /r/talesfromtechsupport by /u/SavannahPharaoh on 2025-06-15 23:02:10+00:00.

I work in cybersecurity, and we have a third-party firm we use to send phishing test campaigns. I like to review those emails to see what tactics they’re using.

Well one day I was looking into a phishing test email, and I accidentally loaded the webpage in the link. No big deal, right? It wasn’t actually phishing, and even if it was, another of our many security precautions would have blocked any malicious activity.

But here’s the thing. The user who reported the email would get dinged for clicking the link. The first offense just requires them to watch a 30 minute security video. But subsequent violations can result in penalties up to and including termination.

So obviously I had to report it. And while it still sounds like it’s no big deal, here’s what my internal monologue basically was when I went to the powers-that-be.

“Hello, I’m the guy who you trust to keep safe the millions of extremely confidential documents you have, and the billions of dollars of currency and other assets you have. One of the most basic security measures we teach is to not click on links from random emails. Even my 91 year old tech-illiterate grandma knows that. But that’s basically what I did. I hope you can still trust me to keep you safe.”

Fortunately, they’re still a valued client.

BONUS STORY: Not me, but one of my employees. We were at a client’s server room. He accidentally tripped over a power cord for a switch, unplugging it. Not a huge deal, right?

But after plugging it back in, it didn’t come back online. The client was reliant on “time equals money.” Every minute those users were offline was costing them hundreds of dollars.

It took almost six hours, but we had a spare switch and were able to get it replaced and configured. Stuff happens, but my poor employee kept saying things like “they’re losing money because of me!” I kept trying to reassure the poor guy. He’s still a valued employee.