According to Kaspersky Lab, over 20% of Wi-Fi hotspots in cities hosting the FIFA World Cup have security issues that could be a target for cybercriminals.
Of the approximately 32,000 public Wi-Fi networks in these cities, 7,176 do not use encryption for data traffic. According to the survey, Saransk was ranked as the safest city for using public Wi-Fi, reportedly securing 72% of all access points with the WPA/WPA2 protocol. The three largest cities with the highest percentage of unsecured connections are St. Petersburg (48% of Wi-Fi access points are not secured), Kaliningrad (47%) and Rostov (44%).
However, networks secured with WPA2 are not impenetrable, especially when it comes to brute-force attacks. Attackers can also attempt to disrupt Wi-Fi traffic with various jamming devices.
Kaspersky Lab urges users to only use HTTPS connections and have the necessary setting enabled on their devices. “Enabling this option is recommended when visiting websites that you think may not have the necessary protection,” the security researchers said.
Additionally, on May 28, they detected several phishing emails that offered users the opportunity to buy tickets to watch the FIFA World Cup, but at 10 times the price. Users soon realized that the tickets were fake after the scammers took the money and collected users’ personal data, including payment information, to steal even more money, creating a double scam.
