ICC Cup Event Could Be Fodder for Phishers

There is an undeniable link between international sporting events like the Olympic or the World Cup Sport Tournaments and the rise of phishing attacks. Such relationship is also true with tragic events as it has been in the cases of Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. By the same reason World Cup Cricket 2007 may also not escape the phishers' subject.

Phishing is sending out deceptive e-mails crafted to steal the recipients' secret personal information like passwords, credit card numbers, bank account data or other sensitive information.

The cyber hawks wait for mega events like the World Cup 2007 to entice unwary surfers into visiting fraudulent websites, which treat them with malicious codes and phishing attacks, told Surendra Singh, head of South East Asia and India, Websense to The Economic Times. As cricket fever takes on, phishing activities will also rise.

Online fraudsters used the recently held FIFA World Cup to install malicious code. Since then there has been increase in both the number of phishing attacks and their sophistication, he said.

Phishing is not something new. This type of scam has been occurring for years, in fact even before computers came into existence. The miscreants cheated people over the phone, which was known as social engineering. In today's era of computers, the delivery vehicle is different i.e., spam and counterfeit Web pages.

Distinguishing between the earlier and contemporary sophistication levels of phishing attacks Mr. Singh said, in the past these threats were clear processes that kids seeking fame wrote and engineered. Now there is use of multiple methods in the same attack such as e-mail, web and instant messaging to reach users illegitimately.

As precautions for this year's World Cup Cricket and even later, Venu Palakirti, sales director, India region, F-Secure, provider of anti-virus solutions asks e-mailers not to open e-mails from unknown sources; not even click on suspicious links. They should also not rely on sites promising free offers. Anyone who wants to update on scores or current news on the ICC Cup should always go to the regular authorized sites. It also means not to open sites unheard of before, he added.

Related article: IC3 Informs about Three New Spam Scams

» SPAMfighter News - 3/27/2007