\nThe start of the Olympics has proved irresistible to cyber criminals, say security firms.<\/p>\n
\nThe start of the Olympics has proved irresistible to cyber criminals, say security firms.<\/p>\n
The volume of junk e-mail messages with an Olympic theme spiked prior to the opening ceremony, said Symantec.<\/p>\n
The
\nmalicious messages try to trick people into visiting fake sites or
\nopening booby-trapped e-mail attachments, say other firms.<\/p>\n
Some messages falsely claim users have won an Olympic lottery and encourage them to respond to claim their prize.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\nHack attack<\/b><\/p>\n
"The
\nBeijing Olympics is gearing up to be one of the biggest events of the
\nyear and hackers and spammers will see it as a massive opportunity to
\ncompromise the unwary," said Con Mallom, a spokesman for Symantec.<\/p>\n
Symantec said the messages in the spam it had seen related to the games ran the gamut of modern security threats.<\/p>\n
"Members
\nof the public have to remember that they should not open e-mails or
\nclick on links from unknown sources, no matter how many gold medals
\nthey are offering," said Mr Mallom.<\/p>\n
Rik Ferguson of Trend Micro
\nsaid the games could inspire attacks on sites related to the games in a
\nbid to compromise them. The hijacked sites would then be used to attack
\nvisitors keen to catch up with the sporting event.<\/p>\n
"We are
\nfully anticipating malicious social engineering techniques to exploit
\npeople’s interest in this event, luring unsuspecting users into
\nclicking on compromised websites and into handing over sensitive
\npersonal information," he said.<\/p>\n
Security firm Marshal said many of the malicious and junk messages emerging from the Rustock botnet were about the games.<\/p>\n
A
\nbotnet is made up of a collection of home computers that have been
\nhijacked by a gang of hi-tech criminals who then put it to a variety of
\nends. Some gangs simply vacuum up the personal data they find on
\ncompromised machines, others use the botnets to pump out spam or to
\nattack other sites.<\/p>\n
Phil Hay, lead threat analyst for Marshal,
\nsaid e-mails sent out via Rustock to catch people out were getting more
\nsophisticated. The latest batch appear to be about headline stories on
\nCNN and many concern the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Those clicking on the
\nheadlines get taken to a fake CNN video report and is asked to install
\na codec to watch the film. Those installing the codec become part of
\nthe Rustock botnet.<\/p>\n
"As time has gone on, the criminals behind
\nRustock have adjusted the appearance and sophistication of their
\nmessages to become more convincing at fooling recipients into infecting
\nthemselves," said Mr Hay.<\/p>\n
Security company MessageLabs said it
\nwas not just members of the public that were at risk. The company said
\nit had seen a campaign that used e-mails crafted to look like they had
\nbeen written by the International Olympic Committee.<\/p>\n
The messages have been sent to those who are part of national sporting organisations or help train athletes.<\/p>\n
Travelling with the fake messages is a booby-trapped Adobe PDF that, if installed, steals data from a compromised PC.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of the computer security threats taking advantage of the Olympics are aimed at users of Windows PCs.<\/p>\n
Carole
\nThierault, senior security consultant at Sophos, said to stay safe
\npeople should keep their anti-virus software up to date, use a firewall
\nand install updates to Windows as they become available.<\/p>\n
Of
\ncourse hackers will do their best to capitalise on this event," said Ms
\nThierault. "The most effective way to avoid the pitfalls is to make
\nyour device an unattractive target.\n<\/p>\n
\nSource: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n