03/13/2026
The Day the “Totally Legit” Email Almost Got Everyone Hacked
It started like any other morning, Diet coke, inbox, the usual. Then one of our park district clients received an email from another park district they work with all the time. Microsoft’s built‑in spam filter (that most use because they think its "good enough" gave it an SCL of **0** (basically: “Looks good to me!”) and passed it right along.
But our secondary security system, used across all our clients, took one look and said, “Absolutely not.” It flagged the message with an SCL of **99%**, (anything over 90 is a quarantine for us), which is our system’s polite way of screaming *“This is BAD!”*
Because our clients can’t release quarantined emails on their own, the user clicked “release,” which created a ticket for us to investigate. Out of thousands of emails we filter every month, we might see **one** false positive. Some months, none. So when our system barks, we listen.
And sure enough… it was a credential harvester. A very convincing one. It spoofed the sender’s name, claimed a file was being shared, and led to a fake Microsoft login page ready to steal credentials from anyone who typed them in.
We double‑checked with our client:
“Are you *sure* this is legit?”
“Yes, absolutely. We work with them all the time. It’s that season where everyone’s sharing documents.”
Still suspicious, we reached out to the other park district directly. Within **one minute**, they replied with the message you see in the screenshot, because they had been flooded all day with the same question. Their account had been compromised, and those malicious emails had gone out to *everyone*. And yes… some recipients definitely clicked.
Our team sat back and said, “We knew it. We caught it. **This** is why we do what we do, and clearly, we’re doing it better than most.”
The compromised park district is significantly larger than our client. Much bigger budgets, a lot more people clicking. And without our layered protection, our client would have been compromised too. Same email. Same sender. Same trust. Very different outcome.
And here’s the part that keeps me up at night:
**Why aren’t we overloaded with new onboarding requests?**
Why do organizations keep going back to the same IT person who only cleans up the mess instead of preventing it? Why do they accept breach after breach as “normal”? Why ignore the warning signs when the cost of prevention is a fraction of the cost of recovery?
This was a *small* breach for that park district. But now they’re on the criminals’ radar. Once attackers know your defenses are weak, they don’t forget. They come back.
I hate seeing this happen when I know we can help.
If this story hits a little too close to home…
Talk to your coworkers, managers, or leadership. Don’t wait for the “big one.” Get real protection in place. And if you’re not sure what that looks like, or whether your current setup is actually keeping you safe, reach out. It's ALWAYS easier BEFORE you get hacked.
Because today, our client dodged a bullet, and someone else's client (who thought they were protected) was compromised.
Tomorrow, it could be you.
