Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of phishing schemes being sent out have increased. This comes in a variety of different forms, such as malicious websites, phishing emails, fraudulent charities, and unemployment scams.

These online threats stem from registered website domains claiming to be secure COVID-19 websites, or mimicking familiar sites, or scammers claiming to be official individuals in fake emails.

COVID-19 phishing schemes have included subjects such as fake vaccination registration websites, fake location services that correlate to your vaccination services, false charities claiming support for those suffering with COVID-19, and bogus unemployment websites offering to help.

Phishing schemes can hurt a company by putting their security at risk. They are launched with the intent to gain information from unsuspecting users or infect the users’ computer. This can have a negative impact on the individual and the company they work for if they fall for phishing on a company computer due to the fact that their employee login information or important data can be stolen by a single click.

Phishing schemes and data breaches can lead to a multitude of issues, to name a few: loss of revenue, loss of intellectual property, and the disruption of operational activities for companies.

It is important among Federal and State Government employees as well as high-profile companies that phishing schemes are debunked quickly so that companies and individuals can act to protect valuable information and insure it is not compromised.