With the holiday approaching, GoDaddy employees received an email last week offering a welcome financial relief: a $ 650 holiday bonus.
Two days later, they received another email from GoDaddy:
“You failed our recent phishing test.” https://t.co/FHWG93BnAM
– Lorraine Longhi 🌵 (@lolonghi) December 23, 2020
Those who did were told two days after “you failed our recent phishing test” and that you would be required to complete security training, according to Copper Courier reporter Lorraine Longhi. The news of the “test” generated outrage on Twitter, with some users threatening to change their hosting provider.
While it is not uncommon for companies to send fake phishing emails to test their employees, it is particularly cruel to promise a holiday bonus in the middle of a pandemic, when millions of people are struggling to stay fed and sheltered. As Longhi points out, GoDaddy “laid off or relocated hundreds of employees during the coronavirus pandemic”, despite reporting record growth in new customers during his latest earnings call.
GoDaddy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.