Google sees 350 percent increase in phishing websites during COVID-19 pandemic, report reveals
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Hackers have been trying to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis, with a new report revealing a 350 percent increase in phishing websites over the last three months.
Atlas VPN gathered the numbers of phishing websites detected by Google and compared them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In January, Google registered a total of 149,195 active phishing websites, according to the report. That number increased to 293,235 the following month. When looking at March versus January, the number of total phishing websites skyrocketed by 350 percent, hitting 522,495.
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Thousands of malicious websites are being created on a daily basis.
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Rachel Welsh, COO of Atlas VPN, explained why the number of phishing sites jumped so dramatically during the COVID-19 outbreak.
"I believe that hackers identified coronavirus as something users are desperate to find information on. Panic leads to irrational thinking and people forget the basics of cybersecurity. Users then download malicious files or try to purchase in-demand items from unsafe websites, in result becoming victims of scams," Welsh said in a statement provided to Fox News.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Since more people are spending time online while they are quarantined at home, hackers and cybercriminals are all able to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic.