Cybercriminals are already looking to take advantage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Are you thinking years out? The bad guys are.
The Olympics, no matter where it’s held, draws the attention of the entire world. Hundreds of thousands of people converge to a single part of the world to see some of the greatest athletes compete. But, with the limited seating comes the need for tickets.
A group of Japanese hackers has already begun planning and testing a phishing scam offering tickets to the upcoming Olympics. Their goal is to compromise an individual’s computer or smartphone to access bank account details.
In conversations collected on the dark web, it’s evident that these hackers are well-versed in social engineering techniques, planning to use phrases like “tokyo2020” in URLs and sender email addresses, as well as to include offers of Olympic-themed gifts to dupe recipients in the US and Japan into taking the bait.
This long-term planning and execution on the part of this group of cybercriminals demonstrates how well-prepared your organization needs to be. They have over a year’s time to perfect their scam. So, what are you doing to prevent them from being successful?
Secure Awareness Training provides organizations with the tools and knowledge to empower users to quickly spot social engineering tactics in phishing emails. It also teaches them to stay vigilant in the face of ever-present attack via phishing, vishing, drive-by downloads, and more.
The Olympics scam is just one of countless others that already exist today, so you can’t wait until 2020 to get started.
We strongly recommend to phish your own users to prevent these types of very expensive snafus. If you're wondering how many people in your organization are susceptible to phishing, here is a free phishing security test (PST):
