Trend Micro used the search engines to look for “watch london olympics opening ceremony live,” “watch london olympics online,” and “watch london olympics 2012 live,”; and received a series of malicious sites in return. Since the bad guys have had as much time to plan their scams as London has had to organize the Games, it is little wonder that black hat SEO techniques have been used to extensive effect.
“Upon analysis, some of these sites redirected to fake live broadcasts of London Olympics 2012 and contained a link for buying cheap albeit bogus tickets,” notes Trend. With today’s news about unused seats and early leavers’ tickets being officially resold, the ticket scam will likely get a boost over the next few days.
“Other fake live streaming sites redirect to another site requiring an email address,” continues Trend. There are two potential threats here. The first is exposure to spam and further email-carried threats; but the second is a potential linkage to one or more of the millions of stolen passwords taken this year alone. Since many websites use an email address as the User ID, and many users use the same password for multiple accounts, hackers with access to the stolen credentials can marry the email with the password and gain access to other accounts.
The traditional threat from bogus live-streaming sites is the fake codec scam. Here the visitor is told that they don't have the rights or latest video player installed, and is offered a download button. It might or might not include a video player, but it will almost certainly include the scammer’s malware of choice.
Infosecurity did a quick check while writing this report. Searching for “watch London olympics online”, Google returned the following, dubious looking offering at #2: “Make a way Are you are looking for a way to w.a.t.c.h O.l.y.m.p.i.c.s o.n.l.i.n.e London 2012 . HQTV f.r.e.e all O.l.y.m.p.i.c.s game Football.”
Trend Micro is right: be very careful how you choose to watch the Olympics online.