Euro 2008 ticket site hacked

Stephen Withers
Friday, 28 March 2008 07:14

Your IT - Home IT

A security company has found malware on to a prominent website selling tickets for the Euro 2008 football tournament.

According to Sophos, ticket purchase pages on the unnamed site trigger a malicious script that attempts to download additional malicious content from another server.

Fortunately, bugs in the script prevent it from working in some browsers.

"This is not the first time that hackers have attempted to capitalise on sporting events, and unfortunately in the run up to the competition this summer, we're likely to see more sites like this being hacked, as well as other scams preying on football fans' fervour," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"Fans keen to get tickets to a game need to make sure they don't get carried away in the excitement and score an own goal before kick off. It's essential that all computer users ensure their security settings are up to date and able to defend against these threats."

But not all of Cluely's colleagues think that football fans are being victimised by the attackers. According to SophosLabs' Fraser Howard, "the Euro 2008 ticket site has most probably not been specifically targeted, but caught up in a larger, widespread attack."