Justice Department Hoaxes Employees in Security Test

The U.S. Justice Department sent a hoax e-mail to its employees directing them to log on to a website where they could enter information about their savings plan.

The e-mail sent a few weeks ago was signed "Thrift Savings Plan Account Coordinator," the Associated Press reports. It told employees to go to an outside website and enter their IDs and passwords.

Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona told the Associated Press that the phony e-mail was a test of security awareness. The e-mail had triggered anxiety among employees who feared they had provided information to a scammer, the story says. One security specialist from the U.S. attorney’s office in Portland, Ore., even sent an urgent mass e-mail warning employees about the dangers of responding.