The modern World Cup is as much a digital event as a sporting one. Fans will buy tickets online, move across borders with mobile bookings, follow updates through official channels and make quick payments at every stage of the trip.
Hull’s warning is that this convenience can be turned against supporters and organisers alike. “The biggest risks are likely to be engineering campaigns such as phishing, credential theft, ticket scams, brand impersonation, and payment fraud,” he said.
That feels especially relevant for football because urgency drives behaviour:
Hull’s argument is not that the tournament needs some science-fiction threat to be vulnerable. Instead, he said the danger may come from “faster exploitation of existing weaknesses”.
That should concern organisers because the 2026 World Cup is expected to be huge, highly visible and unusually complex across three host nations. More systems, more partners and more touchpoints can mean more openings for criminals, opportunists and impersonators.
Artificial intelligence appears to be making the picture harder, not easier. Fake messages can look more convincing, scam pages can be produced more quickly, and impersonation attempts may become more polished around major events.
For football, the lesson is simple: the biggest threat may not be a dramatic shutdown, but thousands of smaller attacks aimed at supporters, staff and sponsors.
The next storyline to watch is how , host authorities and commercial partners tighten security before the tournament gets fully underway - because by the time the first ball is kicked, the digital game may already have started.