Law enforcement and security vendors are warning of scams and spam related to this years Olympics in Rio.

Although Brazil is downplaying the risks, the US, Germany and Japan all rate cyber-attacks at number one.

One of the giveaways is the volume of malicious domain registrations. Brazil has seen an 83% increase while globally there has only been a 15% growth between April and June this year.

Visitors also need to be aware of fake apps that could be downloaded. Limor S. Kessem, executive security advisor, IBM Security Systems ,who continues “Once downloaded, these apps will likely push aggressive ads to the user, redirecting them to phishing sites, fake ecommerce sites, overlay fake screens to demand ransom from the users, or install malware on the device.”

Wieland Alge, VP & GM EMEA at Barracuda Networks, insists that the focus will remain on visitors. “Let's remember that the primary attraction of these big global events is large audiences and eyeballs. Mass events like these are rarely used to try out new malware, so we always expected to see lots of recycled tools delivered to a very broad global audience.”

Kevin Foster, testing services manager at MTI Technology warns: “Brazil is one of the top players in global cyber-crime, and it comes in at tenth on the list of countries with the most malicious activity. A recent report also found that around a quarter of all Wi-Fi networks around the Olympic venues in Rio are unsecure.”

Source: SCMagazine