Euro 2008 ticket sales site attacked by hackers

By Isabelle Chaize

A malicious code has been discovered in one of the official websites selling tickets for this summer’s European Championship football competition.

The site containing the code ranks high in search engine results, and has sponsored links to it from other sites, meaning that the potential target group for the hackers could be huge.

Once a hopeful buyer attempts to purchase a ticket from the site, they are at risk from the malware, which is embedded in some of the site’s pages.

The code then goes on to download more attacks from a remote website.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said that big sporting events were a common target for hackers.

‘This is not the first time that hackers have attempted to capitalise on sporting events,’ he said.

‘Unfortunately, in the run up to the competition this summer, we are likely to see more sites like this being hacked, as well as other scams preying on football fans.

“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 the football even kicks off.’

Sophos advised all computer owners to make sure their machines were fully protected from threats by having up to date security software and settings.