Bengaluru, June 10 -- Cybercriminals are already positioning themselves ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026, turning global excitement around the tournament into a sprawling digital trap targeting fans, sponsors and businesses, according to new research from Fortinet.
The report from FortiGuard Labs says the threat landscape surrounding the World Cup is not emerging as isolated scams, but as a pre-built cybercrime ecosystem involving fake ticketing websites, impersonation accounts, malware-infected applications and credential-harvesting campaigns.
Between January and May 2026, more than 13,000 World Cup-themed domains were registered, with nearly 8.8 per cent already identified as malicious or suspicious. Researchers note that this indicates...