During a monthly security-awareness workshop, an IT trainer shows employees a suspicious email that claims to be from their cloud-storage provider. The message states that the user's account will be locked within 30 minutes unless they click a link and re-enter their credentials. Which element in the email is the clearest sign that it is a phishing attempt designed to trick the user into disclosing sensitive information?
Detailed technical terms explaining the user's security settings
Attackers frequently create a false sense of urgency-such as threatening account lockout unless the recipient acts immediately-to pressure victims into clicking malicious links or providing credentials before they have time to verify the request. Accurate spelling, references to public events, or lengthy technical explanations can appear in either legitimate or fraudulent messages, but urgent language that demands immediate action is a classic social-engineering tactic used in most phishing campaigns.
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Why is an urgent tone often used in phishing emails?
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How can employees identify phishing emails aside from an urgent tone?
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What should employees do if they suspect an email is a phishing attempt?