A recent NBC news report says that athletes, journalists and fans attending the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russie are reportedly seeing their cell phones, computers and tablets hacked. Reporter Richard Engel was sent to the games to demonstrate how quickly the hackings occur. With the help of an American computer security expert, Engel created a fake online identity with fake contact lists, phony names and addresses, and in less than a minute, he received what appeared to be a custom email welcoming him to Sochi and asking him to click on a link for information he might find useful. After clicking, Engel said, his computer was “hijacked.” Continue reading for the video and more information.
If you’re traveling to Sochi for the Games, Engel says to not bring phones or laptops if at all possible. If you absolutely can’t be without a connection, delete any sensitive information from devices before logging on and / or run everything through a VPN tunnel. As with any “phishing” scams, don’t click on anything in an email or a Web page that takes you to an external link, as Web sites that appear to belong to banks or other “secure” third parties can be easily faked.