Paris 2024 gearing up to face unprecedented cybersecurity threat
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 [May 06, 2024]
By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) - Paris 2024 is getting ready to face an unprecedented
challenge in terms of cybersecurity, with organizers expecting a huge
pressure on the Games this summer.
Organized crime, activists and states will be the main threats during
the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics and the Aug. 28-Sept. 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.
"We can't prevent all the attacks, there will not be Games without
attacks but we have to limit their impacts on the Olympics," Vincent
Strubel, the director general of ANSSI, told reporters.
"There are 500 sites, competition venues and local collectives, and
we've tested them all."
Strubel is confident that Paris 2024, who will operate from a
cybersecurity operation centre in a location that is being kept secret,
will be ready.
"The Games are facing an unprecedented level of threat, but we've also
done an unprecedented amount of preparation work so I think we're a step
ahead of the attackers," he said.
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.
"AI helps us make the difference between a nuisance and a catastrophe,"
said Franz Regul, managing director for IT at Paris 2024.
"We're expecting the number of cyber security event to be multiplied by
10 compared to Tokyo (in 2021)."
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A cybersecurity employee from the Paris 2024 flying squad uses a
tablet to test the cybersecurity rules on the Olympic site which
will host the hockey events at Yves-du-Manoir Stadium in Colombes,
near Paris, France, May 3, 2024. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
"In terms of cybersecurity, four years is the equivalent of a
century," Eric Greffier, head of partnerships at CISCO, explained.
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.
"We would like to have one opponent but we're looking into
everything and everyone. Naming the potential attackers is not our
role, it is the role of the state," Strubel said.
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.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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