How Major Sporting Events Shape Up the Security Infra of a Particular Nation?
Hosting a major sport event is a tedious task for every country. It is a prestigious event for many nations as it can level up their global stature and can turbocharge their economic development and social prestige.
But with such significant events come huge responsibilities that accelerate working on the infrastructure and other activities that would take decades to get finished. With the whole world watching nations get pressured to show that they have got the best.
As all eyes are on the host country, it becomes vital for the country to ensure that nothing goes wrong in the event. Therefore, right from the event management to security, everything falls on the shoulders of the authorities and everything has to be maintained till the last minute of the event.
The authorities take care of everything but still, there is a spectrum that is left behind; it is the specter of cybersecurity. Unfortunately, the world we live in is not immune to cyberattacks, and so are the major sports events. To everyone’s surprise, high-profile sports events are a desirable target for cyberattacks because they have a huge fan base.
The other reason for them to be a good target is that such sports events have great media coverage which means they will become popular immediately and a huge amount of money is invested in them.
Sporting events and cybersecurity
Cybercrimes on major sports events are no new occurrence as these kinds of events are on the criminals’ radar. However, if you are wondering how cyberattacks happen during such events, then don’t worry because we will tell you how fraudsters target these events.
The popularity of major sporting events on social media quickly goes beyond a million. For instance, Super Bowl LI had 28 million tweets and 240 million Facebook interactions. So now the fraudsters run campaigns that involve spam and phishing to trick the fans. Various such examples can be found online where people are tricked into downloading malware. These attacks may look simple, but they have the potential to harm the systems, all thanks to human curiosity.
Major Sports Events in the Middle East and Africa
Many countries in the Middle East and Africa have transformed themselves into sports vibrating countries with huge investments.
In the past, many significant sports events have been organized in these countries and have been managed successfully. The Middle East and Africa region have been the host for many important sports events. Here is a list of some of the major sports events that were organized in these nations.
- UAE organized the Asian football title in 2019
- In 2010 FIFA was held in Africa.
- Africa organized a Cricket World Cup in 2003
- 2005 witnessed a fantastic Asian Weightlifting championship in Dubai
These are a few names from the major sports events that were organized in these countries. The next big event for the middle east will be FIFA, which is scheduled to be held in Qatar.
Major Sports events that were attacked by the cybercriminals
To give you an idea about the intensity of the cybercrimes, we have mentioned the data from the previous major sports events.
- In 2010 during the FIFA World Cup in Africa, spam messages and emails were sent. According to the sources, 11,000 malicious messages were sent per second, and more than 212 million malicious connection attempts were blocked.
- In the 2018 Beijing Olympics, more than 12 million cyber-attacks were directed per day towards the event, and organizers had to bear a loss of millions of dollars.
- The 2014 world cup held in Brazil witnessed all cyberattacks, ranging from phishing attacks, adware, banking trojans. Cybercriminals didn’t leave a stone unturned to capitalize on the highest football tournament.
Precautions to safeguard IT systems by the authorities during the major event:
- Check the systems and applications for vulnerabilities. It will build a robust IT infrastructure security in and help fix the issues before the event itself.
- Officials can do threat intelligence gathering before and after the event happens. It can help to find out the security landscape and potential threats.
- Adequate implementation of access controls and flow of information can prevent any intrusions into the servers.
- To be ready for the worst-case scenario, be prepared with a cyberattack response plan.
- Organizing security compliance audits and certification on the organizations can minimize the chances of possible threats.
- All the people who would be involved in the sporting event should be given training on cybersecurity and how they can prevent basic cyberattacks.
- The personal information of the people participating in the event should be kept highly confidential, and a secure VPN should be set.
How to stay safe from cybercrimes during major sporting events?
Major sporting events have become a stomping ground for cybercriminals; however, with the help of cybersecurity companies, you can create a robust IT infrastructure security and also take other protective measures to defend against such malicious activities.
Avoid using third party or unauthorized links
Caution should always be practiced while using third party or unauthorized links, especially if it involves downloading. Fraudsters entice innocent people to download the document or an app by sharing links via emails and websites.
Don’t fall for malware pretending to be a game prediction document
As the event approaches, many cybercriminals want to take advantage of the fan enthusiasm. So they will spread the malware that would be disguised as a malware and lure around the bettors or enthusiastic fans who want to know the predictions of the matches.
Not all of the streaming apps are there to feed the information
Millions of users don’t have access to the official channels. Such people turn to stream apps that allow them to watch the tournaments for free. You will find such apps in a vast quantity as the event comes nearer. Hackers use such apps to spread android malware; therefore, be aware of such apps.
Be careful while sharing the information
Internet users must be careful while they share important information online; by sharing crucial personal information carelessly, they can invite scams. Also, be careful when sharing information using public networks. And ultimately also take care of the credit and debit card information as it is easy for the fraudsters to commit the crime.
The Bottom Line
The stakeholders must be on guard when it comes to organizing a major sporting event. All of the steps mentioned above can be taken care of while setting up a strong cybersecurity team; however, taking help from a successful cybersecurity company will make the work easier. Such companies have experience in handling such attacks and can bring great results to the table.
When enthusiasm gets mixed up with emotions, common sense can take a backseat, and this is precisely what hackers want. Therefore always be one step ahead of the fraudsters.
