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PREPARING SOUTH AFRICA FOR THE WORLD |
Global cybercrime expert Eugene Kaspersky is visiting South Africa for the first time to give the keynote address at the IT Web Security Summit Conference in Johannesburg. The founder and CEO of world-renowned Kaspersky Lab forecasts a 10-fold increase in cybercrime attacks in 2008 and he warns that the World Cup could amplify the problem. Project 2010 asked him....  In its April spam report, security software vendor Symantec warned of the emergence of 419 scam spam related to the 2010 World Cup. The scams first surfaced two years ago, but they are now growing in frequency. Does this surprise you in any way? This does not surprise us in the least. Hackers use many different types of popular events and people to spread their malicious programs. The FIFA 2010 World Cup is just another example of how to lure victims. Is this problem unique to South Africa as the hosts of a mega sporting event or have other countries like Germany (2006 World Cup) or China (2008 Olympic Games) faced similar threats? Spammers use the big news events like tsunamis and World Cups to spread attacks. It's important to realise that it is not the events that are targeted, but rather people around the world. What is the best way to deal with this problem? To educate people and to explain to people to never, under any circumstances, trust the source of e-mails. Malicious attackers have become quite clever in spreading attacks and penetrating systems. People need to note that companies like EBay don't send such emails with subject lines like FIFA 2010. From what you have witnessed so far, is South Africa on target to meet its IT requirements ahead of the World Cup. We are still only in mid-2008, so it's impossible to project what the threats will be come 2010. From what we have seen over the last couple of days, we think SA institutions are as well protected as any in the world. The organisations that have the right people, infrastructure, and systems in place will be well-prepared to protect against future threats. The local FIFA organisers simply need to have world-class IT security experts and security software available to them to protect the systems and the event. more interviews...
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