World Countercriminals Target The Euphoria Of The 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup

This football match caught the attention of cybercriminals and other threat actors. (photo: dock. fifa)

JAKARTA - Soon the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup will start, but this football match caught the attention of cybercriminals and other threat actors.

These cybercriminals are quite proficient in taking important events and putting them into their campaigns.

The first time this unusual activity was discovered by the Digital Shadows Photon research team, they have been tracking cyber threats that have joined around the World Cup for the past 90 days using a custom-made warning system.

Researchers found threats to the ball match regulated into four categories, brand protection, cyber threats, physical protection, and data leakage. Of that number, most of the observed activities are related to cyber threat categories.

The fraud can appear in various forms. For example, financially motivated threat actors often install malicious URLs that falsify these events onto fraudulent sites, hoping to maximize their chances of tricking internet users to profit quickly, "said Photon researcher.

At the same time, cybercriminals can take advantage of the public attention given to the event to exponentially increase the reach of their messages. State-sponsored advanced persistent threat groups (APTs) can also decide to target global sporting events to achieve state goals to host countries or a wider event community," he added.

During their research, Photon researchers received hundreds of online threats, many of which were clearly aimed at the general public, leveraging their anticipation and excitement and their desire for more information about the World Cup in order to lure them.

Launching Computer Weekly, Friday, November 11, among the researchers' findings, namely more than 170 domains that mimic the World Cup's official website, many of them are phishing websites intended to steal victim data.

There are also 53 malicious mobile apps used to install adware, steal data and credentials, and download additional malware payloads and dozens of fake social media pages, some of which are used to spread affiliate marketing or doubt pyramid fraud.

To prevent cybercriminals from tricking us, stay alert to signs of fraud, not clicking on links in unsolicited emails, download apps from the App Store or Google Play Store, and search for news and information from known and trusted media.

"Given the high level of activity carried out by cybercriminals groups in 2022, it is realistic that the group will target the Qatar 2022 World Cup to some extent," said Photon researcher.

"The hacker group can target tournament organizers or sponsors, and can do so using DDoS (distributed denial of service), defacement, or data destruction attacks," he added.