Ahead of Rio Olympics, Brazil faces cyber threat at large: Fortinet Study

NEW DELHI: Fortinet has announced the findings of its FortiGuard Labs cyber threat landscape global report. The report cites increased threat activity in Brazil and explains why it deserves special attention ahead of the Rio Olympics. The volume of malicious and phishing artifacts (i.e. domain names and URLs) in Brazil is on the rise. In June 2016, Brazil’s percentage increase was higher in three of four categories in Fortinet’s report when compared with the global percentage increase. The highest percentage growth was in the malicious URL category at 83% compared to 16% for the rest of the world.

As the 2016 Rio Olympics approaches, the history of these increased attacks will undoubtedly continue and FortiGuard Labs is already seeing indicators of repeat techniques such as domain lookalikes for payment fraud and malicious websites or URLs targeting event and government officials.

Cyberattacks during the Olympic games are not new. Fortinet FortiGuard Labs research has found a spike of attacks focused on the Olympics beginning as far back as the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece.