Crooks race for gold

Experts say cyber thieves will run wild in Rio

Olympic athletes won’t be the only ones descending on Rio next month, security experts are warning.

So will cyber criminals — a group advancing at a much faster rate than athletes in the quadrennial event.

“Cyber criminals who worked the London Olympics versus those who’ll be working the Rio Games are like a horse and buggy versus a Ferrari,” says Caleb Barlow, a vice president at IBM Security, who is warning Americans and others planning on attending the Summer Games.

Cyber crimes — like phishing, stealing crucial data via phony WiFi zones and fake recharging stations — already rank as Brazil’s No. 1 economic crime and cost its citizens more than $8 billion in 2014, according to the Organization of American States.

Brazil ranks No. 4 world- wide in cyber crimes, the OAS said, recording a 274 percent jump in cyber attacks last year.

The saving grace is its hacks weren’t the most sophisticated. But that’s changing — thanks to what Barlow calls “unprecedented collaboration among cyber criminals.”

Being a hacker used to require extensive knowledge of routing and networking, as well as proficiency in programming languages, he said.

But now hackers work in teams and — rather than develop in-house skills — subcontract everything they need for their cyber attacks.

“You just go on the dark Web and pick out whatever you want,” Barlow said, referring to illegal but surprisingly user-friendly online stores.

Kaspersky Lab, a Mos- cow-based security group, located such a store in Brazil and published the following items it found on sale there:

Stolen credit-card testers for $130.

Coding services for $170.

Hosting services for $17. This outsourcing has Brazil’s cyber gangs upping their game to world-class levels, Barlow said, just in time to try them out on the half-million tourists expected for the Games.

“Large-scale sporting events are their favorite — because people are constantly looking up news and clicking on apps,” Barlow said.

However, instead of being scared away, the security expert says, just be more cyber aware than other tourists.

“It’s like running from a bear,” he says. “All you have to do is be faster than the people you’re running with.”