With just 8 days to go for the start of Football World Cup 2014 at Rio de Janeiro, its obvious that lot of the fans want to catch a glimpse of their star players or news about them. Among the leaders in the searches is Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo. However it not only the fans who are interested in these star footballers. According McAfee, the cyber criminals are well aware of the fans interest in Cristiano Ronaldo and likely to use the Portugese star’s name to lure visitors to web pages designed to infect them with malware.
McAfee has prepared a list of most vulnerable names in the football arena who can be used by cyber criminals to lure visitors to such pages. It has named the list as McAfee ‘Red Card Club’ The Red Card Club showcases the top 11 players who are in Brazil for the World Cup, whose web pages are considered to be risky for fans to search for online. Ronaldo lead the pack while Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Spain’s Iker Cassillas, Brazil’s Neymar and Algeria’s Karim Ziani are also most probable baits for these cyber criminals.
Like in tragic circumstances, it is common for the cyber criminals to leverage on the high level of interest in the world cup. Techworm has brought you information how the cyber criminals used the Malaysian Airlines MH370 video and Universal Studios Roller Coaster Accident(fake video) to lure them to websites rigged with malware and adware. Some of the fake webpages host very malicious codes capable of infecting a user’s machine and stealing passwords and personal information.
It is during such times of high interest that the cyber criminals strike at the unsuspecting victims. In the latest case, the hype around the world cup make the football fans run the greatest risk when visiting sites offering screensaver downloads and videos showcasing the extraordinary skills of the footballers.
McAfee says that searching for the latest Cristiano Ronaldo content yields more than a 3.7% chance of landing on a website that has tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.
McAfee has prepared the “Red Card Club” by giving scores among the top eleven positions in terms of greatest percent chance of web page risk.
“Consider the McAfee ‘Red Card Club’ as our effort to warn consumers against allowing passion to trump digital hygiene,” said Paula Greves, director of web security research at McAfee. “Cybercriminals can’t resist taking advantage of ‘fever-pitch’ excitement around this summer’s epic matchups in Brazil. The danger is that this anticipation could lead fans to download content from pages they shouldn’t to fulfill their football experience.”
