Kaspersky Lab Shows Gold Medalist Performance

Kaspersky Lab Shows Gold Medalist Performance

Opportunists are always around the corner but they tend to rear their ugly head even more especially when there is an important event taking place such as the London 2012 Olympic Games. Knowing that the eyes of the whole world will be transfixed on their TV screens with some viewers wanting an easier way to watch the action, Kaspersky Lab has discovered that crafty cyber criminals were quick to take advantage of this opportunity and launched multiple campaigns promoting alleged paid online TV programming that would allow users to see live broadcasts of the Olympic Games via the Internet.

According to Kaspersky, they have found several pages with titles such as “Best Way to Watch London 2012 Olympics Online Live Stream HD” and “London 2012 Live Streaming”. Most sites of this sort are very appealing and some even look very professional, so that to a user it will make it seem like they are close to having access to live programming. But the moment they click on the link provided, they will be redirected through a series of affiliate pages until finally the victims see a site where they can make a payment of US$49.95 to start streaming.

From 22 to 30 July, Kaspersky has uncovered more than 80 malicious domains using this same scheme and to date there are already a total of 38,303 clicks redirected to these sites. Victims also stem from 100 different countries and the greatest numbers are from Indonesia and the United States. Even up till 1 August, these sites were very active and easily had up to 10,000 clicks per day. All in all, Kaspersky estimates that only 1% go through with the payment for the fraudulent TV programming thus giving these criminals close to US$19,000 in profits. However, this actual figure may be higher.

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