Every four years, athletes from around the world come together for the Olympic Games to compete against the top competitors in their respective sports. While most of the Olympics are broadcast live on our televisions, thousands of IT professionals monitor networks and maintain applications and infrastructure behind the scenes to keep the games running smoothly, including hundreds of cybersecurity professionals monitoring the infrastructure for the cyber-attacks and executing remediating actions to prevent cyber threats from spreading.
Their efforts are crucial. During the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018, a cyberattack knocked out broadcasts, shut down the official website and disrupted ticketing systems. Further, the organizers of the Rio Olympics suffered a long-lasting DDoS attack prior to the 2016 games. The attack targeted organizations linked to the Games. During those same Olympics, cyberattackers stole athletes’ private medical data.
As the Games get started this week, let’s look at the top three ways the Paris Olympics can be exploited by cybercriminals.
1. Fans willingly give information to what they think are sports-related organizations
The cybersecurity issue that’s likely to be most prominent at the Paris Olympics is a familiar one: phishing. As difficult as this might be to believe, phishing will likely be an even bigger security challenge during the Games than it is every day. Attacks tend to surge during major global events when participants and fans might not pay as much attention to messages they receive as the normally would.
Ticket scams are also a significant issue with any big sporting event. Getting tickets to events such as the Olympics isn’t easy, and desperate fans can make for easy scamming targets. The Games will almost assuredly bring out profit-seeking cyberattackers collecting personal information from fans by selling fake tickets.
While phishing is a more significant threat, the data fans give to legitimate sports organizations could also be at risk. Fans will happily sign onto waiting lists, participate in raffles or buy tickets online, offering plenty of personally identifiable information (PII). Much of that information is gold for cyber attackers and given the distributed responsibility of protecting the data between multiple parties – sports teams, event organizers, ticket sellers and other vendors – cyber attackers will be looking for targets to penetrate networks and still the data.
2. New technology can introduce new vulnerabilities
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security points out that France now uses AI-based surveillance at events with more than 300 attendees, and this very technology will be in place at the Olympics. Unfortunately, new technology is usually not equipped with the highest level of security due to its novelty and can be a target for being breached. In 2021, cyberattackers took control of a different company’s smart cameras and gained access to customers’ data. Attackers could prevent cameras from working properly and inject fake footage. While we hope history does not repeat itself at the Olympics, threat groups will likely leverage new technology to find backdoors or security flaws to gain inside access and exploit any sensitive information they can access.
3. Big events make ransomware even more profitable
There is never a good time for a cyberattack to shut down a business, but when tens of thousands of people are in town for the Olympics, making sure that systems are staying up and running is even more critical than usual. Ransomware attacks could put local businesses in Paris in a real bind. They can’t afford to shut down during an event that could make or break them, so they might be more likely to quickly pay a ransom than they would be at another time.
There may be no time for negotiation if the service providers and IT team managing the infrastructure don’t have prevention and remediation protocols in place. IDC reports that only about half of large enterprises in France believe they have sufficient threat-hunting or threat intelligence skills. Worse, fewer than 20 percent of French businesses would label their cybersecurity posture as “mature or better,” the firm reveals. Smaller businesses with less cybersecurity protection are even more prone to becoming victims.
Cybersecurity is a daily responsibility for every businesses
The Olympics happen only once every four years, but for businesses, cybersecurity is a daily task that must be taken seriously, especially during these worldwide events. Essential elements such as threat intelligence and monitoring, strong intrusion detection, reliable incident response and secure backup will always be essential. Businesses must implement and keep them to ensure smooth business continuity, avoid reputation risks and prevent financial ruin.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As a President at Acronis, Gaidar Magdanurov is responsible for partner enablement, education, and Acronis marketing organizations.
He joined Acronis in 2013 as a Business Manager to CEO, becoming Vice President of online business and General Manager for consumer business in 2016, Chief Marketing Officer in 2017, Chief Success Officer in 2020, and President in 2023.
Previously an investment director at venture capital fund Runa Capital, Gaidar was responsible for seed-stage investments, advising and educating entrepreneurs, supporting the business development of portfolio companies, and maintaining relationships with startup incubators and accelerators.
Before Runa Capital, Gaidar served in various roles at Microsoft, from a technology evangelist to a Microsoft Seed Fund managing director.
Before Microsoft, he worked as a software engineer and IT administrator for various companies.
Gaidar holds a master’s degree in chemistry.
