Paris 2024 is getting ready to face an unprecedented challenge in terms of cybersecurity, with organisers expecting a huge pressure on the Games this summer.
Organised crime, activists and states will be the main threats during the July 26 – August 11 Olympics and the August 28-September 8 Paralympics.
Paris 2024, who have been working hand in hand with the French national agency for information security (ANSSI), and cybersecurity companies Cisco and Eviden are looking to limit the impact of cyber attacks.
ANSSI is confident that Paris 2024, who will operate from a cybersecurity operation centre in a location that is being kept secret, will be ready.
To make sure they are in the game, Paris 2024 have been paying “ethical hackers” to stress test their systems and have been using artificial intelligence to help them do a triage of the threats.
In 2018, a computer virus dubbed “Olympic Destroyer” was used in an attack on the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
While Moscow denied any involvement, the U.S. Justice Department in 2020 said it has indicted six Russian intelligence agency hackers for a four-year long hacking spree that included attacks against the Pyeongchang Games.
Last month, French president Emmanuel Macron said he had no doubt Russia would malevolently target the Paris Olympics.
The Games will take place amid a complex global backdrop, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s conflict with Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
(Reuters)