Paris 2024 is preparing to face unprecedented challenges in terms of cybersecurity, with organizers expecting significant pressure on this summer's Games.
Organized crime, activists and nation-states will be the main threats between July 26th and August 26th. 11 Olympians and he will compete in the Paralympics from August 28th to September 8th.
Paris 2024, working in partnership with France's National Agency for Information Security (ANSSI) and cybersecurity companies Cisco and Eviden, is seeking to limit the impact of cyberattacks.
“We cannot prevent all attacks. There are no Games without attacks, but we have to limit the impact on the Olympics,” ANSSI director general Vincent Strubel told reporters.
“There are 500 sites, competition venues and community organizations, and we tested them all.”
Strubel is confident that Paris 2024 will be ready, operating from a cyber security operations center in a secret location.
“The Games are facing an unprecedented level of threat, but we have also done an unprecedented amount of preparation work, so I think we are one step ahead of the attackers,” he said.
To make sure they're in the game, Paris 2024 is paying “ethical hackers” to stress test their systems and using artificial intelligence to triage threats. I'm using.
“AI can help us distinguish between a nuisance and a catastrophe,” said Franz Regl, Managing Director of IT at Paris 2024.
“We expect the number of cybersecurity events to be 10 times higher than in Tokyo (in 2021).”
“Four years is a century from a cybersecurity perspective,” explained Eric Greffia, Director of Partnerships at CISCO.
In 2018, a computer virus called “Olympic Destroyer” was used to attack the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Although the Russian government denied any involvement, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in 2020 that it had indicted six Russian intelligence hackers over a four-year hacking scandal that included attacks on the Pyeongchang Olympics.
“We want to have one opponent, but we are investigating everyone and everyone. It is not our role to name potential attackers, it is the state's role,” Strubel said. .
French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that he had no doubt that Russia would maliciously target the Paris Olympics.
The Games will be held amid a complex global situation, including Russia's war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
