Beware of cybercriminals, hackers at London Olympics

With the London Olympics right around the corner, hackers and cybercriminals will be pulling out all the stops in an effort to gather and exploit personal information.  RSA, the security division of EMC, has identified some key Olympic-related fraud trends that are surfacing as well as some helpful tips for how everyone can protect themselves. Tip #1: Phishing is the next Olympic Sport -Expect to see numerous Olympic-themed phishing emails–such as a recent scam where people were led to believe they’d won tickets to the Games and just needed to fill out a form with personal information claim their prize–and remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Tip #2:  Beware of fake ticketing sites. — Olympics tickets, especially to popular events such as swimming, track & field, etc. can be some of the hottest tickets around. That means the secondary market for scalped tickets is also one of the biggest around, and it’s full of fake sites trying to scam you out of not just your money, but your financial information as well. The official London2012.com site has a “Ticket Checker” where fans can check the URL of the site on which they are considering buying tickets to determine if it’s legit, as well as a list of known fraudulent ticketing sites. Tip #3: The Olympics Gone Social — This year’s Olympics promise to be the most “social” games of all with fans following along via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. This also provides a prime vehicle for hackers to try to steal your personal information. Avoid directly responding to email alerts that (appear to) come from Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites and even your bank. Instead, go directly to these sites by typing their URLs directly into your browser or using a browser bookmark. From kuwaittime