Google has flagged 2.02 million phishing sites since the beginning of the year, averaging forty-six thousand sites per week, according to researchers at a Atlas VPN. The researchers note that the number of phishing sites peaked at the start of the year, which correlates with the start of the pandemic.

“Data also reveals that in the first half of 2020, there were two huge spikes in malicious websites, reaching over 58 thousand detections per week at the peaks,” the researchers write. “The second half of the year seems more stable, which is not a positive thing, as there are around 45 thousand new copy-cat websites registered every seven days.”

Atlas VPN says the number of new phishing sites has been steadily increasing each year since 2015, but it’s now higher than it’s ever been. Google and other companies do a good job of tracking down malicious sites, but attackers can easily scale their operations and set up new sites to stay ahead of efforts to shut them down. New-school security awareness training enables your employees to spot these sites on their own.