The 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup has supplied much in the way of opportunities for cyber criminals to exploit both locals and visitors, said Symantec CEO and president Enrique Salem.
Salem was speaking to a group of local journalists in Johannesburg, on Friday. The sporting event, combined with rapidly rising broadband uptake, created an almost perfect storm, he said.
“We're seeing a lot of attacks, and we're also seeing a lot of attacks coming out of botnets in SA.”
Botnets are networks of infected computers that criminals use to launch attacks. This, he added, is a new thing, but there are already lots of big botnets in the US and Europe.
Attacks today are more targeted than in the past, he said, noting that Symantec issued 1.6 million virus signatures in 2008, more than in the previous 17 years combined.
“Attacks used to be broad,” he commented. “We used to talk of Warhol attacks - attacks designed to infect everyone within 15 minutes. Now attacks are very specific and targeted. Last year, we released 2.9 million signatures.”
And whereas in the past criminals tried to access networks for fun or kudos, today's cyber crime overlord is after credentials that he can exploit to gain access to bank accounts, which are rapidly emptied; or IT systems, which are rapidly pillaged of useful financial credentials, like credit card details.
This is how cyber criminals have been exploiting 2010. Hundreds of thousands of people have been looking for tickets, transport, accommodation, and the scammers have responded with a plethora of 419 scams designed to lure in the unwary sports fan. Spam has also increased by 27%, says the company. Statistics have proven that broadband and sporting events attract criminals.
Says Gordon Love, regional director for Africa at Symantec: “Our research over the past years has also shown that events such as the Olympics and Soccer World Cup trigger online fraud, fake Web sites, phishing and spam attacks, and hacking.”
According to a statement released by Symantec recently: “Egypt, which wasn't even ranked in 2007 by the ISTR, shot straight to the number one slot in EMEA for malicious activity per broadband subscriber in 2008. This occurred after the country's Internet connectivity became a priority for the Egyptian government.”
Another statement released by the company says that, according to monthly spam reports, 10% of spam delivered globally at the time of the Beijing Olympics referred to the event. A further statement provided statistics from the German event: “During the previous Fifa World Cup, related phishing attacks jumped by 40%. As many as 4 615 phishing hosts per month were discovered in 2006, up 66% over the previous year.”
Symantec has set up a site specifically dealing with World Cup threats, which has information on current scams, and how to guard against them.
Some of these scams are particularly sophisticated, like the one purporting to be from the Ghana Lotteries Board, offering tickets, transport and accommodation.
“Organisations need to secure the integrity of their information, particularly confidential information provided by users accessing Web sites offering services and products relating to the event,” Symantec says. “Hackers will attempt to gain access to valuable information through compromising user accounts, for instance, and can also reach customer information held in databases that run behind these Web sites.”
“Organisations should not assume that in the case of their Web sites being compromised, the only risk they face is text being altered,” says Candid W"uest, senior security researcher for Symantec.
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