Windows® 7 Pre Release Candidate And Fifa World Cup™

Cybercriminals are continuing to target global events and major news stories such as the FIFA World Cup™ and the recent release of Windows® 7 RC.

Thousands of Windows® 7 builds have already been downloaded on Torrent and P2P sharing sites containing a malicious trojan. The trojan has the potential to cause system failure and result in identity theft or financial loss for the end user.

Spam attacks are already targeting the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Tournament and we are beginning to see some evidence that FIFA related attacks will continue to escalate. During the previous FIFA World Cup™, related phishing attacks jumped by 40%, this pattern is expected to occur once again and if current outbreak trends are anything to go by, it is expected to be even bigger than the previous year.

Global events and major news stories just like this one are commonly seen to result in spikes in theme related malware attacks; another example is the recently reported Swine Flu Pandemic malware.