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Cybercriminals Ramp Up Activity Ahead of 2014 World Cup
wiredmikey (1824622) writes With the FIFA World Cup 2014 kicking off this week in Brazil, cybercriminals and scammers are working hard to take advantage of visitors to the World Cup in Brazil and those following the world soccer tournament online. In recent months, several security vendors have published advisories about the various scams, phishing and malware operations that target Internet users interested in the World Cup. While individuals from all over the world have been targeted, many of the malicious campaigns focus on Brazil and neighboring South American countries. While news that cybercriminals are zoning in on a large global event is no surprise, the scale and tactics being used is quite wide in scope, ranging from malware distribution and phishing scams, to fraudulent ticket sales, spam and other promising yet fraudulent schemes.For those visiting Brazil to watch the games in person, the cyber threats also include rogue wireless access points, ATMs rigged with card skimmers and Point-of-Sale malware.
I thought APK got called back to the mothership years ago. Awesome to see he's still spreading the good word.
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I mean im sure its a huge problem that people like fans and ticketholders are going to be targeted, but customers have always enjoyed being the target of crime. The real issue is that we decided to bring one of the most expensive, prestigious sports competitions with an array of elaborate infrastructure requirements and expsnsive hosting obligations to a country with a 25% poverty rate and epidemic levels of child starvation and violent crime. Sure it makes Brazillian politicians and the cloistered elite feel special but when you factor the average brazillian into the equation it was a pretty god damn wreckless decision to take two billion out of their economy and piss it away on a single sports event.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I would encourage you to look closer. Just because the mainstream media didn't cover the trouble doesn't mean it didn't happen. Other news sources would disagree with your assertion that horrible things didn't happen to the visitors in S.Africa. But it is certainly true that crime was reduced while the world cup was being held, so in "relative terms" it's true. But it was also extremely temporary. They almost literally declared martial law in the region where the cup was held, but surrounding areas? Not so much. Visitors who wandered outside of designated areas did so at their own peril and were informed of such.
The word "bubble" comes to mind.
I was there in South Africa for the World Cup. Were you? If not, you don't get to pass off rumors as facts. And if you're one of those racist Afrikaners, your opinion means nothing because a lot of you are still living in the past.
I don't know where this "They almost literally declared martial law" stuff comes from. I stayed in the home of some South African friends, who by the way would have been classified as "colored" in the old Apartheid system, and other than having a lot more tourists, it was pretty much life goes on as usual there. I didn't see any unusual numbers of police or military anywhere. I went to two different major cities and even went with a friend to Kruger National Park for a few days and at no time did I see any unusual number of police or military, nor did I hear on the local news about tourists being the victims of crime. Yes, I'm sure that somewhere some tourist there got victimized in some way, but this suggestion that there was plenty of crime that got covered up is just nonsense. Your reference to the "mainstream media" troubles me quite a bit because that could suggest that you get your information from sources that the majority of us feel are unreliable and too politically oriented.