Major sporting events such as Euro 2024, Wimbledon or the Paris Olympic Games (POG), which kicks off this Friday, attract millions of viewers, making them very attractive to cybercriminals. Cyberattacks on these types of events have increased over the past decade, from 212 million at the London 2012 Games to a staggering 4.4 billion at the Tokyo 2021 Games.
According to research by FortiGuard Labs, based on data from FortiRecon (a digital risk protection service), for over a year now, the OJ 2024 edition has been the target of a growing number of cybercriminals, with an increase in activity on the darknet (the independent networks that make up the “dark web”) targeting France. This growth, between 80% and 90%, remained stable between the second half of 2023 and the first half of this year. The prevalence and sophistication of these threats are a testament to the planning and efficiency of cybercriminals.
Documented activities include the increasing availability of advanced tools and services designed to facilitate data leaks and harvest users’ personal information, such as full names, dates of birth, taxpayer identification numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, etc. The study also found an increase in the practice of “phishing” (cyberattacks designed to trick people into sharing sensitive information), exploitation tools created “specifically” for OJ 2024, “infothieves” (malicious software designed to steal information), and “ransomware” (data theft with a ransom demand).
Author: Sonia Diaz
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.