Hackers Aiming At The 2018 Winter Olympics

Hackers have attempted to target organizations, that were close and involved in the 2018 Winter Olympics, which started off a few days ago in Pyeongchang – South Korea. This was reported by the well-known cybersecurity company McAfee, that is popular with its Anti-malware software. Between December 22nd and 28th, there have been sent infected documents to Olympic associations from an email that was made so to appear as though it came from South Korean authorities, analysts with McAfee’s Advanced Threat Research division found.

The targeted organizations included a range of groups involved in providing infrastructure or support for the Pyeongchang Games, including an ice hockey association. McAfee did not identify who was responsible for the attack, as they decided to keep the information private so that they don’t cause any frauds. “The attackers appear to be casting a wide net with this campaign,” McAfee wrote in a blog post.

The company found a log, that indicated some targets in South Korea that were most likely infected. “With the upcoming Olympics, we expect to see an increase in cyber attacks using Olympics-related themes,” McAfee said, noting that previous cases had focused on obtaining targets’ passwords and financial information so that the intruders could take advantage of your accounts and therefore leak the money amounts inside.

The Anti-malware company said that the hackers infected with malicious software in a Korean-language a Microsoft Word document, that was uploaded to the email, which was titled “Organized by Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.”The messages, which McAfee traced to an IP address in Singapore, were also made to appear as though they were sent by South Korea’s anti-terror body. Some external government aliases helped to create the impression that the message was legitimate, McAfee said.