The Hindu Business Line : Websense foresees surge in cyber attacks on Olympics sites

Coimbatore, March 18 While Beijing is preparing to host the 2008 Olympics, cyber attackers also seem to be gearing themselves for the event, albeit for a different reason.

Cautioning users about security issues that could take place in the world of sports, Websense recalled the cyber attack during the FIFA World Cup 2006, when malware writers set up a fake site that installed a Trojan Horse on to end users machines to steal information for financial gains. “Similar event-based attacks and scams cannot be ruled out. We foresee a surge in cyber attacks during Olympics,” said Mr S. Maheshwaran, Technical Manager-SAARC at Websense Inc.

In a telephonic conversation, he said, “In the past, hackers were keen on making money but now, they are more organised, more professional, luring unsuspecting Web users into downloading malicious code/sites.”

According to Mr Maheshwaran, Web 2.0 could pose a threat for users and organisations. “Organisations should restrict users from accessing MySpace or YouTube at work place as hackers would look at implanting tricks on the Home Page. Since the Net penetration is rising rapidly and is also turning dynamic, such security threats pose a challenge to Security Administrators.”

DoS attacks

Websense foresees large scale denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on Beijing Olympic-related sites. (A DoS attack is an incident in which a user or organisation is deprived of the services of a resource they would normally expect to have. In a distributed denial-of-service, large numbers of compromised systems (sometimes called a botnet) attack a single target.)

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