The Olympic games, which kick off in Paris towards the end of next month, are expected to attract over 15 million visitors to the French capital and generate around €11 billion. But there are also growing fears that the four-yearly global event will be the target of a tsunami of cybercrime and terrorism.
“The Tokyo Games in 2021 suffered 450 million computer attacks. Paris expects eight times more!” says the networking giant Cisco, an official partner for Paris 2024.
“In terms of cybersecurity, four years is the equivalent of a century,” added Eric Greffier, head of partnerships at Cisco.
But France is determined not to allow the games to be marred by cyber-attacks
“We can’t prevent all the attacks, there will not be Games without attacks but we have to limit their impacts on the Olympics,” says Vincent Strubel, the director general of the French National Agency for Information Security (ANSSI).
Russia will malevolently target the Paris Olympics
There are growing fears that cyber espionage from potentially hostile nations states may mar the long-awaited event. French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that he had no doubt Russia would malevolently target the Paris Olympics. This is a fairly safe prediction, as Russia already has a history of trying to disrupt previous Olympic events.
In 2018, a computer virus known as “Olympic Destroyer” was reported to have been used six years ago in an attack on the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea. Although Russia continues to deny any involvement, the US Justice Department indicted six Russian intelligence agency hackers for crimes, including cyber-attacks against the Pyeongchang Games.
The half-decade since the Pyeongchang Games has seen a heightening of geopolitical tensions, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s conflict with Middle Eastern terrorist forces Hamas and Hezbollah. However, the last few years have also seen an explosion in cybercrimes committed purely for financial gain by highly organized groups of cyber criminals generally based outside the US and European jurisdiction in locations such as Russia and North Korea. The Paris Olympics’ massive ticketing operation and the mounting surge in e-commerce are already making next month’s Olympic Games an attractive target for cyberattacks.
“Motivated by financial gain, cybercriminals are redoubling their efforts and will not hesitate to create websites that spoof everyday services such as web-based email, online shopping, banks, and government agencies,” says Olympic Games co-ordinator Paris 2024.
