Super Bowl XLII will soon be upon us. February 3, an estimated 73,000 people will descend upon Arizona’s University of Phoenix stadium to attend one of the most rigidly secured events in history.
Local and federal law enforcement agencies will be using every trick in their playbooks to thwart possible terrorist attacks. Surveillance cameras will be everywhere, feeding facial recognition programs designed to identify bad guys. Hotel reservation lists and airline flight databases will be searched for names associated with terrorists. Bomb-sniffing dogs will sweep the stadium, as well as local businesses and hotels. People will be run through metal detectors, patted down, searched and detained. Jet fighters, helicopters, SWAT teams, mobile laboratories, robots and high-tech sensors will all be on hand. Vehicles will be scanned, checking for radioactive and biological substances.
Part of the concern is fueled by a January 14 report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis detailing hundreds of thefts involving stolen police credentials, uniforms, equipment and weapons that could be used to infiltrate and attack the world’s biggest football party. The report states that “the list of stolen equipment includes access cards; ammunition; body armor; firearms; Kevlar helmets; marked and unmarked emergency services, fire, and police vehicles; official badges and credentials; radios; raid shirts and jackets; rifles; uniforms; and weapons.” Cause for concern, indeed.
Abundant threats also exist on the Internet to those attending Super Bowl XLII, and even to folks who simply want information about the event. A flood of fake email is expected, mentioning the Super Bowl in the subject line and directing the innocent to websites where they will be scammed and otherwise fleeced.
One of the biggest problems facing Internet-using Super Bowl fans is that of fake tickets. Counterfeiters are very adept at reproducing the look and feel of Super Bowl tickets, right down to the raised trophy and NFL hologram. Some scammers have been caught, such as the woman who was busted a few years back for selling 105 fake tickets at $400 each, reaping a tidy $42,000. Most scammers remain at large, however, and huge amounts of money have been lost. Websites such as CraigsList and eBay are often used to sell phony tickets. I checked while writing this article, and eBay listed 1,263 auctions for Super Bowl tickets. eBay has no way of knowing whether or not the tickets are legitimate. If you want to buy tickets online, buy from a member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers.
Super Bowl websites can also contain hidden dangers. Last year, the official Super Bowl XLI websites for Dolphins Stadium and the Miami Dolphins were hacked, and stayed that way for seven days. Dolphinstadium.com, dolphinsstadium.com and proplayerstadium.com infected visitors with a “Trojan downloader” program that installed a password-stealing program known as a keylogger. The downloader also left the door open to other malicious programs that could be installed at a later date. The hacks and programs came from bad guys located in China. To help protect against such dangers, make sure that your operating system has the latest security updates and patches, and that you are actively using updated antivirus and antispyware programs. Using updated and secured Web browsers, such as Mozilla’s Firefox, is also a good idea.
Studies show that the majority of the estimated 2.5 million websites that threaten visitors with dangerous software and links are actually legitimate websites that have been hacked by criminals. During the last months of 2007, infected banner ads were even showing up on the Major League Baseball website mlb.com. Be careful where you click.