World Cup Cyber Crime: Spotting It, Thwarting It
How to spot and tackle cyber crime during the World Cup? Find out.
Like many major sports and entertainment events, the World Cup is a magnet for fraudsters and threat actors seeking to prey upon fans and, through them, their employers. Most intend to scam soccer enthusiasts and use their credentials to hold their organizations hostage via ransomware and other attacks. Understanding how malicious, AI-driven social media campaigns and other attack strategies begin is the important first step in thwarting them, says Taylor Ellis, customer threat analyst at Horizon3ai.
The World Cup has always been a boon for scammers to prey on unknowing fans, but in current times, there is no better place than the Internet for them to strike. While it is understandable that fans and their patriotic love for their nation’s team is endless, it is important to remember that adversaries will do just about anything to take advantage of this intense devotion. These sites usually represent fake ticket or merchandise sales, surveys promising “free World Cup gifts” when completed, fraudulent betting forums, and false FIFA employment scams. Due to the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals and their methods, it may be difficult to separate a legitimate site from one that is illegitimate, but a few common trends can reveal evidence of a scheme.
Spot the Fakes: Don’t Let the Cybercriminals Score
When trying to identify if a FIFA website is a fake, it is important to first check the URL to see if it is mimicking an official page. In the case of FIFA and Qatar 2022, numerous “official” URLs have been discovered, often displaying “qatar2022.com” or “qatarfifa.qa/,” among other variations. It should be a common rule of thumb that if any of these variations contain “.pro” or other suspicious items in the link, the site is most likely a domain imposter and should not be visited. In addition to URL spoofing, cybercriminals also create pages requiring fans to fill out financial information and other sensitive data before a ticket purchase or lottery entry can take place. If mass amounts of information on the part of the user are required before a transaction is even started, this should be an obvious sign that cybercriminals are trying to take the user’s information and run.
By checking the web developer tool in Google or any other web browser, it is easy to discern if the form was created using poor web development techniques or basic HTML/CSS language. This simple check is valid to perform if it is unclear whether the web page appears professionally designed. Other factors, such as spelling errors, the misuse of grammar, language, titles, (etc.) can also point to clear signs of fraud. As a newer trend in the realm of technological scams, social media also plays a major role in the advertisement and mass distribution of links leading to these fraudulent websites. Scammers mainly use platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc., to promote the false selling of tickets and other merchandise. If a fan receives a message from an anonymous social media profile or a malicious ad, it is best to remember that legitimate institutions usually avoid sending out information via this informal method. Therefore, refrain from clicking on any “phishy” links or opening an anonymous message, especially if they contain common buzzwords such as FIFA, World Cup, Qatar 2022, (etc.).
See More: Looking Beyond Phishing: The Deeper Issue within Security that Needs Addressing
Beyond User Education: What Else Can Organizations Do?
While much progress has already been made in promoting user awareness, user education is half the battle to detect and prevent malicious scams. While users are doing their part to not click on links and also in reporting fraud when they experience it, FIFA as an organization must play an active role in handling mock websites and fraudulent social media campaigns. FIFA has already done brilliantly by creating a comprehensive cybersecurity framework in the preparation of World Cup operations, but the main challenge for the organization is following the framework when an incident occurs and foreseeing future threats. While physical security has always been a major priority during matches, it is important to note that FIFA can do more to improve the digital security of their football fans. These main areas that FIFA should be focusing on include investigating the use of fraudulent FIFA apps (sometimes available for download in Apple or Android forums), cooperating with international authorities to shut down scammer websites, and requesting the removal of fraudulent social media campaigns promoting malicious links or advertisements to users.
Due to the World Cup’s sprawling attack surface, controlling the impact of fraud via social media will be FIFA’s greatest challenge to overcome. With billions of users streaming and interacting on various platforms, it will be difficult to differentiate the bots from legitimate fans. As a tool of mainstream media and the occasional cybercriminal, bots are largely used to influence public opinion or, in the case of the World Cup, push fake promotional “opportunities” onto World Cup consumers. As for Qatar 2022, multiple consumers have reported the existence of more bots than actual humans on chat sites, in which they believe the AI is maliciously linked to “phishy” ads and other fraudulent scams. While not all bots are malicious, it is definitely possible that their mass existence could be traced back to a group of adversaries or one adversary acting for a multitude of hostile purposes (such as financial gain, political motivation, recognition and achievement, etc.). Either way, it is important for consumers to be aware of the use of artificial intelligence in social media and on the Internet, for much of the World Cup is fueled by artificial intelligence taking control of the common narrative.
Designated Risk Management and Incident Response
The best solution that FIFA could implement for containing fraudulent social media campaigns and the use of malicious bots is to formulate designated risk management and incident response plans. While social media and botnets are usually not judged as significant as other threats, it is important for FIFA to strategize ways to block fake accounts and misinformative bots from disrupting the consumer experience of the World Cup. These strategies may include requiring more than two forms of multi-factor authentication for users to verify their identity, restricting the number of FIFA accounts or ticket sales to one user, and continuously monitoring social media platforms (either by means of artificial intelligence or by using professional pen-testers) for bots and other scammers. By identifying these external risks originating from social media and the Internet as a whole, FIFA can improve the protection of their critical infrastructure and their customers.
How do you think sports organizations can better protect themselves and their audience against cybercrime around big events like the World cup? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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