Scottsdale, Arizona-based web company GoDaddy apologized Thursday after an email promising employees a Christmas bonus amid pandemicthe related economic problems turned out to be a test of computer security.
“GoDaddy takes the security of our platform extremely seriously. We understand that some employees were upset by the fishing attempt and considered it insensitive, so we apologized,” said a spokesman for GoDaddy, the company’s largest Internet domain management in the world. AFP in a statement.
“While the test mimics the actual attempts at play today, we need to do better and be more sensitive to our employees,” GoDaddy said.
About 500 employees clicked on a December email from the company offering a $ 650 Christmas bonus and asking them to fill out a form with their personal details.
Two days later, a different message appeared in their inboxes.
“You received this email because you suspended our recent fishing test,” the email from GoDaddy’s chief security officer said, according to the Arizona Copper Courier newspaper.
The phishing technique, widely used by hackers, sends emails pretending to be from a person known for the intended purpose, with the aim of obtaining information to infiltrate their computer systems.
The test email caused a stir on social media as millions of Americans have been hit hard by the economic problems associated with the pandemic.