“Throughout the duration of the World Cup, we neutralized almost 25 million cyber attacks and other criminal activities against the information infrastructure of Russia, which, in one way or another, were associated with the holding of the World Cup,” the Russian president said as he thanked players and fans for the very successful and incident-free tournament.
Putin thanked the representatives of 55 special services and law enforcement agencies from 34 countries which helped ensure security over a month.
“I would like to thank the personnel of Russian security services and law enforcement agencies and, of course, the representatives of law enforcement agencies and security services from over 30 nations. I know that a total of 126 representatives of 55 security services and law enforcement agencies from 34 states participated in this joint work,” Putin said during his meeting with the representatives of the command unit, which was in charge of ensuring security during the tournament, a statement published on the Kremlin’s website read.
Putin added that visitors who had arrived in Russia for attending the World Cup felt safe. They had been able to travel freely across Russia without facing unnecessary barriers to attend games, the president noted.
As a precautionary measure, the England Football Association had asked its players, coaches, and technical staff to avoid using public Wi-Fi networks and rely on satellite communication services for emergency web correspondence.
FIFA formally announced to the English Football Association along with the other associations that it was committed to preventing security attacks in general.
The Federation International de Football Association (FIFA) which is based in Zurich, is mostly governed by Swiss laws. The association offered highly encrypted internet services provided by a European Satellite Communication company for the event.
So, players, coaches and technical staff of various football associations – except Russia – participating in the event had a limited but highly secure web access while visiting the Russian Federation in 2018.