2018 Russia World Cup : Russian cyber spy may hack travelers’ mobile devices

According to a top US intelligence official, mobile phones of football fans traveling to Russia for the World Cup could be hacked by the Russian Intelligence.

Russia World Cup 2018 – Mobile devices and computers of football fans traveling to Russia could be hacked by the Russian Intelligence, the alert was issued by William Evanina, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.

The Top US official warned of massive surveillance operated by Russian authorities during the World Cup for security reason.

“Anyone traveling to Russia to attend the World Cup should be clear-eyed about the cyber risks involved,” Evanina said in a statement.

“If you’re planning on taking a mobile phone, laptop, PDA, or other electronic device with you — make no mistake — any data on those devices (especially your personally identifiable information) may be accessed by the Russian government or cyber criminals.”

Every traveler attending the event in Russia should be a target of the Russian Intelligence, to prevent nation-state hackers compromise their devices the official suggests removing the battery when it is not in use.

“Corporate and government officials are most at risk, but don’t assume you’re too insignificant to be targeted.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Russia, surveillance)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.