Prep is Underway, But 2026 FIFA World Cup Poses Significant Cyber Challenges

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be bigger in every way from past tournaments: 48 teams will play 104 games at 16 stadiums in three nations, in cities in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Locking down such a popular and widely dispersed event poses significant challenges for event planners, infrastructure-security professionals, and cybersecurity teams. Not only will the event be the biggest football tournament — soccer to our US readers — in history, but the most technology- and automation-dependent as well.

Both the size of the event and the fact that it’s more reliant on technology and automation than past tournaments will increase the vulnerability of the infrastructure, says Chris Gove, director of cybersecurity strategy for Nozomi Networks, a provider of cybersecurity for operational technology.

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