{"id":992412,"date":"2026-05-29T14:32:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/992412\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T14:32:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:32:27","slug":"iran-and-russia-to-target-fifa-world-cup-threat-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/992412\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran and Russia to target Fifa World Cup, threat experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tFriday 29 May 2026 3:00 pm
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\tFriday 29 May 2026 12:13 pm\n\t<\/p>\n

\"GettyImages\t\tRussia and Iran will target the Fifa World Cup\t<\/p>\n

Russia and Iran rogue actors will target the Fifa World Cup as part of an ongoing anti-US position, according to global threat intelligence experts.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s World Cup \u2013 taking place across the United States, Canada and Mexico \u2013 is likely to be subject to a number of acts<\/a> of cyber terrorism, while the use of drones could fuel domestic<\/a>, physical terrorism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But security experts have told City AM that rogue actors from both Iran and Russia are likely to increase the number of cyber attacks they\u2019re carrying out.<\/p>\n

Unit 42\u2019s \u201cDiscussing the world\u2019s biggest game\u2019s attack surface\u201d report stated that Russia-linked hack accounts have targeted NATO members<\/a> and events such as the Ukraine Peace Summit and Paris and Milan Olympic Games. Two of the three World Cup hosts are members of NATO.<\/p>\n

Iranian hackers have reportedly been targeting \u201csmall municipal authorities\u201d which could impact \u201cwater, wastewater and energy infrastructure\u201d across host cities.<\/p>\n

\t\tHack threat at World Cup<\/p>\n

Unit 42\u2019s Justin Moore told City AM that \u201cgeopolitical tensions mean we are monitoring active interest from state-backed and proxy threat actors\u201d, adding that, \u201cRussia may have been banned from competition, but it\u2019s been running cyber interference in global sport since long before Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimilarly,\u201d Moore added, \u201cfrom destructive attacks to disinformation, Iran is running a full campaign, and the World Cup could be a target given the highly volatile geopolitical climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tFifa World Cup under major threat of cyber terrorism<\/a><\/p>\n

It is another concern for a World Cup that begins next month but has seen controversy over immigration, visas, tickets, transport and geopolitical stances.<\/p>\n

Iran will be competing in the World Cup despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, with their matches slated for the West Coast of the United States.<\/p>\n

Russia is banned from the tournament but President Trump did tout their return earlier on in the World Cup cycle amid Ukraine-related peace talks in Alaska.<\/p>\n

Added Moore: \u201cCybercriminals get excited by the mass exploitation of worldwide sporting events because they\u2019re great at exploiting human psychology for financial gain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile hacktivists may attempt disruptive DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks to garner headlines, the overwhelming volume of cyber activity we anticipate will actually come from everyday, financially motivated cybercriminals deploying ransomware and ticketing scams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk isn\u2019t about an inevitable disruption, but rather a reminder of why early, coordinated digital readiness across the entire host-city ecosystem is so critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tFifa World Cup under drone terrorism threat, security experts warn<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\tSimilarly tagged content: <\/p>\n

\t\t\tSections\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tCategories\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPeople & Organisations\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tRelated Topics\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday 29 May 2026 3:00 pm \u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0 Friday 29 May 2026 12:13 pm Russia and Iran will target…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":992413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[135905,51,943,13509,19560,94,15986,774,2132,12,332,93,131586,659,1514],"class_list":["post-992412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-cybercrime","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-football","tag-hacking","tag-iran","tag-mexico","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-sport","tag-sport-business","tag-usa","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116658356290653517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}