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Editor: Matt Paines

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Olympics heighten SEO scam fears

Businesses are being alerted to the potential of search engine optimisation attacks as employees go online to catch up on the action in the 2008 Olympics.
 
Internet security specialists Fortinet warned that a major event such as the Olympic Games is a period of heightened risk for SEO scams, where cyber criminals look to exploit the rush of users searching the web for coverage of events in Beijing.
 
The company is urging businesses to implement internet usage policies to prevent employees from being duped into visiting sites that could compromise their company's network security.
 
Head of Fortinet's threat response team, Guillaume Lovet, said that each time there was a major event such as the World Cup or the Asian tsunami, criminals had seized the opportunity to deploy scams.
 
He said that when people entered keywords related to the Olympics they could be directed to websites set up by criminals.
 
This, he added, could put them at risk of scams and expose them to malware as well as other threats.
 
Fortinet issued a set of security guidelines, which advised businesses to:

• make sure its employees understood its internet usage policy;
• use effective internet security software and keep it up to date;
• avoid following unsolicited links offered by third parties; and
• set filters so that staff could access the Olympics during breaks and outside normal working hours.

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