Cybercriminals Exploit World Cup Fervor

Over the past 24 hours my spam filter has quarantined at least a half-dozen emails from spoofed addresses with the header, "FIFA World Cup South Africa - bad news."

It turns out the messages are significantly worse than annoying spam, however. According to the email security firm MX Lab, each contains a link to malicious javascript that redirects the user to one or more websites capable of downloading malware to the user's computer.

Network security experts say cybercriminals are poised to exploit global interest in the 2010 World Cup through a variety of tactics, including phishing attacks, hoaxes, scams, and "drive-by downloads" of malicious software.

In addition to watching out for infected emails and other dirty tricks, experts say keeping Internet firewalls and virus protection software operational and up to date are critical to avoiding and combating such attacks.

Read more:
• Cybercriminals Tap into World Cup Fever with Malware and Infected Emails
• 'FIFA World Cup South Africa - bad news' Emails Lead Readers to Host with Malware
• F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen Gives World Cup Cybercriminals the Red Card