I meant for this to go up the day before the olympics, However- Lightning had other plans. Blew out my modem and any dsl access I had, so here is the delayed version of the olympic cyberscape threat analysis

So with the 2008 Beijing Olympics beginning tommorow today, I figured I would do an threat breakdown for the olympic games internet landscape. As with any large event, the nasties of the internet underground will always exploit the spotlight- My hope is that this guide will help you know what to expect in the coming weeks. For the purposes of this article we will divide all the threats into two categories:(True) hacking and Social Engineering.

Hacking: One of the biggest targets for hacking, of course, will be be the olympic site itself. Attackers will be seperated into basically five groups. Pro-Democratic activists will target the site to further their message, using it to speak out against the principals of the chinese government. Tibetan protesters will be looking to bring light to the atrocities that china has commited against their country, and attempting to get worldwide support. Human Rights activsts have already infiltrated the website, and changed many of the headline and border colors to be orange- the color of the human rights protests.Other political activists such as taiwaneese, or islamic nationals will also be looking for their piece of the virtual pie. You also have the fifth category, people who have no beef with china, but are looking solely for fame inside of the hacking community.

The next big target in the hacking category would be the actual infrastructure that supports the record keeping, ticket indexing,and financial records of the games. If compromised, this could be the biggest information compromise of the year, and could be a massive PR disaster for china.For this reason, china needs to be extra vigilant, protecting even the least significant access points. Even a minor compromise of system could wind up costing tens of millions, if not more in financial damage to olympic attendees.

Social Engineering: Social engineering is one of the most serious danger for the majority of olympic attendees. We all get THOSE emails, Your bank account is being used, your credit card has been stolen, uncle frankeiose in the congo has lef t you 50 Million dollars. Social engineering is used to play upon the hopes, fears and dreams of the target, you. So how is it most likely that a social engineer will use these methods in the Olympic season, and what shape may these attacks take?  In this season of physical prowess,  social engineering (aka:phishing) attacks are most likely to take the form of straight phishing,spam, or storm worm variants. Phishing attacks will be semi-normal in comparison with what is normally seen. Possible attack techniques would be emails from the ticketing agency, urging you to verify your ticket information. Another technique could be giving users the option to “Upgrade” their tickets to ground level seats.Another possible attack technique would be the classic “Your Credit Card Has been Stolen” scenario. In this scenario, an attacker would tell you that your credit card number has been stolen from somewhere in china, and is currently being used to purchase items. Traditional Spam is another popular technique, however this is a generally unmalicious use. Spam emails you may see could be Discount Tickets for the olympics, Olympic based gambling, or sites where you can watch the olympics “for free online”. These emails are generally just a nuisance, however, some sites contain malicious code which can silently install keyloggers, or any other number of other nasty programs onto your computer that allow a attacker to see all of the data passing over your network. Rule of thumb? Do not even open spam.Perhaps the most destructive of all the social engineering techniques of late is the storm botnet. Storm Variants rely on time specific events to spread the Botnet. A Botnet is a virus that turns your system into an extension of a hackers computer, allowing him to harvest your credit card info,use you to hack others, or even use you to harvest other people’s info. Storm variants spread through seemingly realistic “news events” they have used false stories of the US invading iran, false aid to myanmar and china, or falsified assasinations to spread the worm. Likely variants you will see in the next few weeks will dwell upon the successes of previous attempts. You are likely to see reports of “Olympic Bombings”, “Bush Boycotts Iran”, “Olympic Earthquakes”, or other sensationalized stories. It is key to remember that most large news agencies will not email you regarding news events,  unless you specifically request it.