The Olympic Games are a major global event, bringing together thousands of athletes, officials and spectators from all over the world. With the rise of technology, cybersecurity has become a key priority to ensure the smooth running of the Games. The protection of data, IT systems and communication networks is crucial to avoid any intrusion or malicious attack. This particular context requires a specific cybersecurity approach to guarantee the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information essential to the organization of the Games, particularly for Paris 2024. According to Franz Regul, Deputy Director of Cybersecurity for Paris 2024, “The number of cybersecurity events is expected to increase tenfold compared to Tokyo in 2021.”
To understand what’s at stake, here’s a non-exhaustive list of the various possible attacks before, during and after the Olympics:
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DDoS attacks, distributed denial-of-service attacks: These attacks aim to make online services unavailable by saturating them with traffic. They can disrupt Olympic broadcasting, online ticketing systems and event management platforms.
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Phishing and Social Engineering: Cybercriminals may attempt to trick employees, athletes or spectators with fraudulent e-mails or messages to obtain sensitive information or gain access to internal systems.
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Ransomware: These attacks can paralyze operations by encrypting critical data and demanding a ransom to decrypt it. This type of attack can have catastrophic consequences for logistics and event management.
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Espionage and Data Theft: The personal data of athletes, employees and spectators, as well as strategic event information, are valuable targets for criminals.
It’s also important to note that cybercriminals target everyone: companies, associations, hospitals, governments, private individuals, but also infrastructures such as power grids, transport systems and security devices that are necessary for the smooth running of the Olympic Games.
To avoid these cyber threats as much as possible, it’s important to adopt good digital hygiene. Here are a few tips to keep you as safe as possible during the Olympic Games:
- Use a password of at least 12 characters (including upper and lower case letters, numbers, special characters, etc.) and never share it with anyone.
- Update your devices regularly
- Always activate double authentication
- Don’t click on links you don’t know the source of
- Back up all your data more frequently
- Use antivirus software and secure connections
If you have any problems, please consult the Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr platform. Together, we can protect this global event and ensure the smooth running of the Olympic Games by adopting good cybersecurity practices.
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