The world’s biggest football event is already underway. While global attention is focused on the stadiums, match results, and participating national teams, a vast digital infrastructure operates behind the scenes, enabling ticketing systems, telecommunications, transportation services, payment platforms, mobile applications, and cloud environments that support the experience of millions of people. As digital activity surrounding the tournament increases, so does the interest of cybercriminals.

According to cybersecurity company Group-IB, more than 4,300 fraudulent domains related to FIFA have been identified since August 2025, many of them designed to mimic official websites and steal users’ login credentials. Meanwhile, FortiGuard Labs reported that between January and May 2026, more than 13,000 World Cup-related domains were registered, with approximately 8.8% classified as malicious or suspicious. Recent research has also highlighted phishing campaigns impersonating FIFA authentication systems, fake streaming applications, and operations aimed at stealing personal and financial information.

According to Mercurius Cybersecurity, a company specializing in cybersecurity and digital resilience across Latin America, these incidents reflect a broader reality: major global events increasingly depend on complex digital ecosystems, where operational continuity is just as critical as data protection.

“When millions of people simultaneously rely on telecommunications networks, ticketing platforms, transportation services, payment systems, and mobile applications, cybersecurity must be recognized as a fundamental component of operational continuity,” says Marcos Reis, Founder and CEO of Mercurius.

According to the executive, the primary concern extends far beyond fraud attempts targeting end users. The growing sophistication of cyber threats demonstrates that any disruption to critical digital services can trigger cascading impacts across organizations, suppliers, and the users who depend on those operations.

This scenario becomes even more significant in a World Cup hosted simultaneously across three countries and sixteen host cities, involving millions of visitors, highly distributed logistics, and a strong reliance on interconnected digital infrastructures.

“Global-scale events serve as real-world stress tests for organizations. The greatest challenge is ensuring that critical services remain operational even under adverse conditions. This resilience has become one of the most important competitive differentiators for any organization managing essential infrastructure,” Reis adds.

For Mercurius, the lessons learned from the FIFA World Cup extend well beyond sports. The increase in cyber threats associated with the tournament reinforces the need to strengthen early threat detection, vulnerability management, and incident response capabilities across strategic sectors such as telecommunications, financial services, transportation, energy, and government agencies.

As the tournament progresses, the challenge is no longer limited to protecting fans from scams. It also involves ensuring that the entire digital infrastructure supporting the event continues to operate securely, reliably, and resiliently in the face of an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape.