By Oriade Ayomide
Reports have it that anonymous Brazilian hackers are threatening to launch online attacks during the football World Cup to be held in Brazil in June. The attacks they said will be against government, FIFA and sponsors’ sites in order to disrupt the games.
Furious about the 33 billion reais ($14 billion) in federal funds being spent on World Cup preparations, more than a million Brazilians took to the streets last June in a wave of mass demonstrations, calling for better public services, greater transparency, and a crackdown on corruption. Now, hackers say they will join the fray.
“We are already making plans,” a hacker going by the name of Eduarda Dioratto told Reuters. “I don’t think there is much they can do to stop us,” he added
Another hacker called Che Commodore said :“The attacks will be directed against official websites and those of companies sponsoring the Cup.”
Che Commodore said denial of service (DoS) attacks may be used, when targeted websites are jammed by massive accessing of the site by thousands of computers at once. “It’s fast, damaging and relatively simple to carry out,” the hacker said.
Brazil has an extensive cybercrime rate, and the Brazilian army has a dedicated Cyber Defence Centre to lead cyber preparations for big events, including the football event.
