Coca-Cola France has become the latest victim of Anonymous’ hacking campaign protesting the 2014 World Cup being held in Brazil.

Distributed-denial-of-services attacks were directed at the Brazilian government and tournament sponsors the Hyundai Motor Company and the Emirates Group throughout the week as part of #OpWorldCup, flooding the websites with traffic until the servers crashed.

Edward Parsons, senior manager of cyber security at KPMG, said: "Issue-motivated groups have long used major sporting events as a platform to promote their cause. This kind of attack is the modern equivalent of a crowd protests outside an office."

Other organisations hit by the cyber attacks include the official tournament website, forty Brazilian government websites, the Bank of Brazil, Universal Music Brazil and the New York election website, which was defaced with a YouTube video, apparently from Anonymous.

"DDoS mitigation is possible but attacks are getting bigger in scale as capability once on the hands of only sophisticated actors become available as a service. Businesses therefore need to determine whether the outlay in cost is worth incurring to allay this risk," Parsons added.

Anger against the Brazilian government has built up going into the World Cup, with both Brazilians and others abroad dismayed at the cost of the tournament, and Anonymous threatening to attack sponsors for several months.

Addressing Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil, the group said: "Over the years we have been watching you, your government and your campaign to manipulate the masses. The Brazilian people made it clear that investing in the World Cup was a big mistake.

"Anonymous has decided that the World Cup should be boycotted and destroyed for the good of the Brazilian people. We call on all Brazilians that are against this event, which has been run with the Brazilian people’s money."

The group believe that money spend on the tournament should be invested in health, education and public safety, and accused FIFA of profiting while people in Brazil were dying.

Hackers motivated for financial profit are also expected to disrupt the tournament, hitting fans with a range of scams including phishing, card skimming and malvertising.