Alerts Launched against Hacking Attacks this Olympic

The upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing have prompted alerts against hackers in various parts of China. According to Hong Kong's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, the event represents a hacking target too tempting to overlook.

In his speech addressed to the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team Conference on March 12, 2008, John Wong Shak-chuen, Assistant Government Chief Information Officer of Infrastructure and Security, said that this year's Olympic Games and significant elections in some countries later in 2008 are hot targets of politically-oriented hackers. The Standard published this in news on March 13, 2008.

Wong added that such events often draw the attention of counter cultures that wish to come in the forefront to serve a cause by obstructing major events leading to a lot of embarrassment.

To be ready with prevention measures against cyber attacks expected on different Websites for Olympics 2008, the team for emergency response conducted a simulated cyber attack in 2007 to gauge the extent of law enforcers' coordination and to determine the way for reducing the effect of the likely cyber attacks.

In 2007, a Beijing Organizing Committee concerned with the Olympic Games reportedly suggested that the Games would potentially be subject to hacking attacks. According to security experts, a major problem is in trying to figure out the origin of the cyber attack that gives hackers the opportunity to maneuver within a virtual environment of anonymity and deniability.

As financially-motivated hackers take the place of emerging delinquent computer-savvy teenagers, information security professionals, both at the local and international levels, agree that havens providing safe support to criminals-controlled servers are still the biggest obstacle in combating cyber crime.

The Emergency Response Teams share the same views with security provider Websense, whose researchers believe that event-oriented scams and attacks are popular. Therefore events like the Olympic Games, which the entire world would watch, might trigger a wave of cyber attacks. According to predictions by researchers at Websense, a large scale DoS (Denial of Service) attack targeting 2008 Olympic-related Websites are expected as fraud attempts through the Web and e-mail surrounds this year's Olympics Games in Beijing.

Related article: Alert Issued on Unauthentic Software Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 3/21/2008