G DATA Software AG: Antivirus, Virenschutz, Virenscanner, Internet Security

Bochum (Germany), 07 May 2008 - The national teams are in the final phase of preparations and the fans are eagerly awaiting the start of the European football championships. Undetected by the public, cyber gangs completed their Euro 2008 training camps a long time ago and are raring to go. What the online criminals are after is the PCs and wallets of football fans! Personalised spam mails promising the fans tickets, exclusive videos and Euro 2008 match schedules are particularly dangerous. Online criminals use this trick to try and obtain credit card information or infect fan PCs with malicious codes. The first attacks on fan portals and communities have already been reported. The hacked websites are used to store malicious code, which automatically installs itself undetected by the victims via drive-by-download. To “keep the box clean”, G DATA recommends checking your own PC’s line of defence immediately. Operating system, internet browser and anti-virus solution should always be right up-to-date.

International events magically attract cyber gangs and offer rich pickings. Ralf Benzmüller, head of G DATA Security Labs, expects that before and during Euro 2008, online criminals will step up the hunt for data and millions of Euro 2008 spam mails will be sent.

“Huge sports events are just too tempting for the eCrime society to resist trying to profit from them. Many fans did not manage to get any Euro 2008 tickets - and the criminals know that too! G DATA Security Labs have already registered the first Euro spam. The closer Euro 2008 comes, the larger the flood of spam trying to lure the victims to fake sales markets with available ticket stocks is certain to become. Here, the offenders are after all the fans’ personal data, such as credit card information or e-mail accounts.”

Recipients should therefore delete unsolicited e-mails immediately and avoid clicking on any integrated links under any circumstances. This is often where the real trap lies: malicious code is stored in prepared internet pages and this code automatically installs itself on the user’s PC without the user noticing it. Computers infected in this way are often taken over completely by the offenders; all the personal data is stolen, the PCs are integrated into botnets and then hired out as spam machines.

Crime Scene - The Fan Community
At the start of 2007, cyber criminals had already successfully manipulated the server of the American football team Miami Dolphins ahead of the Super Bowl. The offenders successfully placed malware there and infected countless PCs with Trojan horses. Something similar is also to be expected in the Euro 2008 environment. “Criminals are certain to hack additional fan sites with the intent of implanting malicious code from there. Storing malicious code on internet pages has become so successful these days that about 2/3 of all virus infections take place via the browser,” states Ralf Benzmüller.

This is how you can protect your PC from nasty fouls
- Always keep Windows, Internet Explorer and Firefox up to date.

- Use anti-virus solutions that permanently monitor all internet traffic for malicious codes.

- Deactivate JavaScript in your browser.

- Delete unsolicited e-mails immediately and never click on any integrated links.