Cops furious at fake phishing email bait about pay rises

An email to thousands of police officers was not what it appeared to be - leaving the AFP humiliated and vowing to change.

An attempt to test the cyber security skills of Australia’s top cops has backfired spectacularly after a phishing email pretending to be about sensitive pay rise negotiations was sent to thousands of Australian Federal Police officers.

The sneaky test email – supposed to catch out the not so savvy information technology users among them – instead caused anger, confusion, complaints and prompted a mea culpa and apology from the highest ranks.

A phishing email sent to AFP staff by the AFP.

Salary scales are unsurprisingly a touchy subject with the AFP, especially after the AFP Association (AFPA) called them out as being the lowest paid cops in the country amid revelations hundreds of cops are moonlighting to make ends meet.

Of the 7700 Australian Federal Police employees, 2131 - or more than one quarter - are moonlighting in second jobs, mainly because they need to make ends meet.

So it is not surprising the officers were not seeing the funny side of the internal email heralding an Enterprise Agreement from the “EA Negotiation Team” – “Securing Your Future” which also contained two links to click through.

The AFP declined to answer how many officers failed the test by clicking through the links.

But a spokeswoman said the emails came from templates used by other agencies to test staff.

“Last week, an apology was issued to staff for any confusion or concern it caused, particularly in relation to using the topic of enterprise bargaining,” the spokeswoman said.

But the complaints were loud and clear and the AFPA intervened to speak with the AFP executive.

In a communication to members the AFPA President Alex Caruana said “We have been advised by Dr Simon Walsh that the email was a phishing attempt designed to test the baseline vigilance of members as spotting such messages which are an increasing risk for our information security.”

AFPA president Alex Caruana said the pay and conditions of AFP officers is a serious subject. Picture: Supplied.

“The pay terms and conditions of our members is not a joke and it is something we take very seriously – and so should the AFP. Now more than ever our members are feeling the pinch …” Mr Caruana said.

“The email was completely misguided and devalues the difficulties all of our members are currently facing.”

“If the AFP were serious they would be spending time with the new government about removing the AFP from the Public Sector Workplace Relations Policy (and the wages cap), properly resourcing the AFP and providing adequate protections for those injured at work.”

Dr Walsh, National Manager Operational Science and Technology, responded and sent a retraction in an email admitting it was all a phishing hoax.

“This week the AFP Cyber Security team have been running a “friendly phishing” campaign introducing test emails into your inboxes to test our spam detection filters and the capacity of receiving members to safely identify fraudulent emails...” Dr Walsh wrote.

“Unfortunately one of our test emails entitled “Enterprise Agreement Negotiation email” has caused some unfortunate confusion and concern.

AFP email said Commissioner Reece Kershaw will be the one to start any pay negotiations. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“If you received this email can I please ask that you disregard and delete it. It is not a genuine notification and certainly does not enact the notification of the commencement of enterprise bargaining...”

“...Any notification to commence the next enterprise bargaining process will come from the Commissioner”.

“On behalf of our team I apologise for any confusion or concern that this has caused.”