NEW YORK — You know those phishing tests you get at work that are typically so obvious, it’s hard to fall for them?
Well, Madison Square Garden did one, but it came at a really unfortunate time with a more unfortunate message.
Madison Square Garden sent employees a phishing test email that read “Congratulations, your Employee Championship Ring is here.” The employees were shown two ring designs to select from, with instructions to click a link. Instead of going to an order form or selection page, the link sent employees to a mandatory cybersecurity class, The Associated Press reported.
MSG later said that using the championship rings in the simulated attack was a mistake but still stands by sending a message.
The New York Knicks released a statement to The Athletic which read, “The company had previously sent out an email to its corporate team as a simulation of a phishing attack designed to strengthen our security against hackers. MSG was recently hacked and extorted using an employee login and password obtained through a similar phishing attack. Using the rings as a lure to gain employees attention was an unfortunate mistake.”
“Regarding the phishing email, the process of securing and reminding our employees to protect our IP was not a mistake but the choice to use the ring to do so was a mistake and we apologize to our employees and the fans,” MSG said, according to the AP.
The Knicks said they always planned to give employees a ring, but it will take about a month.
“There is a great deal of misinformation regarding the championship rings. The plan has always been to distribute more than 275 rings and jewelry to the people in the organization who were part of last season’s success,” an MSG spokesperson said, “As is common with many teams, the players were always supposed to get their rings as part of the opening night ceremony and then everyone else will receive theirs in about 4-6 weeks.”
The players got their rings before the season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers last week.
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