Symantec launches World Cup security website

Symantec has set up a special website to track malicious activity and scams relating to the World Cup, which starts on 11 June.

With a potential pot of more than one billion victims around the world, the company said it would warn people about the ticket scams, phishing attacks, fake websites and emails it uncovers.

Visitors to the site can also set up an RSS feed to let them get the latest news and security alerts delivered to their desktop.

The website will also provide data, commentary, safety tips and useful links for football fans surfing the internet for news, tickets and information on the tournament.

People using the company’s security software such as Norton 360 or the Internet Security 2010 software will get additional protection from dodgy websites, as the safe surfing feature will automatically flag up suspicious or dangerous sites.

Paul Wood, senior analyst at Symantec Hosted Services, said: “Historically, any large-scale sporting event has shown an increase in all kinds of cyber threats.

“Phishing attacks increased by 66 per cent during the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The fact that two undersea communications cables landed on South African shores last July will exacerbate the threat levels; history also shows that malicious activity increases in a country after new bandwidth is made available.”

Symantec said much of the threat activity will not be new to the world of cybercrime – so-called '419' scams, spam and phishing attacks will face users in the guise of special offers for the event.

Gordon Love, the company’s Africa regional director, warned that many of the websites set up by criminals will be ‘poisoned’ with malicious code so that they appear at the top of search results.

He warned that the cybercriminals are always finding new ways of duping people into disclosing their personal information.

“Being well informed and alert is as important as keeping up to date with the latest protection software updates. The rule is, if something looks too good to be true, then it’s likely to be a scam. The 2010 Net Threat site will aim to tell people how they can protect themselves against such attacks.”