2026 FIFA World Cup: What Public Safety Officials Need to Know

The report warns that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is being actively exploited by cybercriminals, hacktivists, and potentially state-linked actors through World Cup-themed domain fraud, credential-harvesting sites, cloned FIFA pages, phishing lures, and ransomware/extortion campaigns; it documents observed campaigns (dozens to hundreds of suspicious domains, cloned sites, and ad-driven purchase scams) and recommends coordinated cyber-physical preparedness by hosts, sponsors, and service providers to detect and mitigate phishing, fraud, credential theft, and targeted espionage.