Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have reported
that workers around the world are being disrupted by spam campaigns
related to the World Cup as the international soccer tournament
draws closer to its conclusion.
World Cup-related spam campaigns seen by Sophos include
notifications of bogus FIFA-sponsored lottery wins, deals to get
cheaper phone calls until the end of the tournament, and offers of
tickets to the matches in Germany.
"Spammers are taking advantage of the fact that many workers
will be more willing to read and respond to emails about the
world's greatest sporting event than a run-of-the-mill spam," said
Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant at Sophos. "But junk email clogs up
inboxes, affects business productivity, and in the worst cases can
lead to financial loss and identity theft."
In one of the latest junk email campaigns seen by experts at
Sophos, spammers claim that if recipients tell them who they think
will win the World Cup they will receive a free $500 Visa Gift
Card.
The spam claims to offer a $500 Visa Gift Card
to recipients who report back who they think will win the World
Cup.
Clicking anywhere on the email, however, actually results in the
user's internet browser being taken to a website which is promoting
plasma TV sets to watch the international football games.
Clicking on the email takes users to a website
promoting plasma television sets.
"You may think you are in with a chance of receiving a free gift
by telling the spammers the name of your favorite football team,
but in fact you will be playing straight into their hands,"
continued Cluley. "Users will feel as sick as a parrot when they
realise they are unlikely to ever receive a prize, and have
confirmed that their email address is active to the people who fill
up their email inboxes with junk every day."
To determine the controls put in place for World Cup-related
computer usage at work, in a recent Sophos web poll, IT
professionals were asked what actions they would take. 44 percent
of all respondents revealed that they won't control it at all,
compared with just 15 percent who said they would prevent live
streaming, 11 percent who would block all related applications,
eight percent who would track software downloading and 20 percent
who would use a combination of methods to control this kind of
computer usage.
"Allowing users to more or less do as they please online
seriously exposes their computers and the network to infectious
attack, so it's astonishing that so many organizations aren't doing
more to control this kind of PC usage," continued Cluley. "Every
organisation needs an IT security policy in place, as well as
someone tasked with enforcing it."
Sophos experts recently reported on the malicious Sixem
email worm, which infected Windows computers using the ruse
that the attached file contained pictures of naked football
fans.
Sophos recommends that companies protect their email gateways
with a consolidated solution to defend
against spam, viruses, and spyware.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.