Paris plans massive cyberattacks

(Paris) In his office on the upper floors of the headquarters of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG), the head of cybersecurity for the Paris Summer Games, Franz Regul, expresses one certainty: “We will be attacked. »

Today, all over the world, governments and companies have teams like Mr. Regul’s, installed in spartan premises crammed with computer servers and screens where indicator lights signal computer attacks. On the wall of the Paris operations center, there is even a red flashing light which alerts of the most serious attacks.

July and August will be hot

According to Mr Regul, there has been no serious disruption so far. But as the Olympics approach, the number and severity of hacking attempts will increase exponentially, he says. Companies and governments cannot predict the timing of attacks, but Mr. Regul knows exactly when the worst will happen: it will be in July and August.

Previously, security at major events like the Olympics focused on physical threats, such as terrorism. But technology is playing a growing role in the Games, and organizers now also fear cyberattacks.

The threats are multiple. Russian, Chinese, North Korean and Iranian hackers now have capabilities that can disable not only computer networks and WiFi, but also ticketing, ID cards and even event timers, experts say.

These fears are not hypothetical. During the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, an attack nearly derailed the Games before they even began. It began as spectators arrived at the opening ceremony.

From the outset, it was clear that something was wrong. The WiFi network, essential for journalists and photographers covering the event, went down, as did the official Games app giving spectators their tickets and transport information. Some of them could not enter the stadium. Television network drones were grounded, and screens supposed to broadcast the ceremony at all sites went dark.

A night to repel the attack

But everything resumed, and the Games could begin. Throughout the night, dozens of cybersecurity technicians fought the hackers, repelled the attack and repaired the damage. The next morning, disaster had been averted, and the trials began.

Since then, the threat to the Olympic Games has worsened. The Tokyo 2021 Summer Games cybersecurity team faced 450 million “security event” attempts. In Paris, this number will be eight to twelve times greater, predicts Mr. Regul. Billions of attacks.

Faced with this threat, the French cybersecurity team adopted military terminology. “War games” test men and systems, and the constantly evolving “defensive doctrine” incorporates “lessons learned” by “Korean veterans.”

Cyberattacks can have very varied origins. Criminals can steal data to ransom a victim. Activists may try to draw attention to a cause. But most experts believe that only nation states have the capacity to carry out a major attack.

The 2018 attack in PyeongChang was initially blamed on North Korea, South Korea’s fractious neighbor. But US and British agencies and independent experts later concluded that the real culprit – Russia, according to broad consensus – had used techniques designed to cover their tracks.

Russia again and again

This year, Russia remains the main threat.

The Russian team was excluded from the Olympics following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 (a small group of Russians will be able to participate as neutral athletes). Relations between France and Russia are at their worst, with President Emmanuel Macron recently accusing Moscow of denigrating the Paris Games through a disinformation campaign.

In 2019, according to Microsoft, hackers linked to the Kremlin attacked the computer networks of at least 16 national and international sports and anti-doping organizations, including the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which was preparing to announce sanctions against Russia linked to his doping program.

Three years earlier, at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Russia targeted anti-doping officials. According to charges brought by US federal prosecutors and targeting several Russian military intelligence officials, agents then hacked the WiFi networks of hotels where anti-doping staff were staying in order to access WADA databases and emails.

Mr. Regul, head of cybersecurity in Paris, refuses to name which countries he suspects of planning attacks. He only says that his team is preparing to counter country-specific methods that represent “a strong threat”.

War games

The Paris OCOG conducted “war games” earlier this year in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Games technology partner Atos to prepare for attacks. “Ethical hackers” were hired to attack systems, and “bug bounties” were paid to those who discovered vulnerabilities.

In the past, hackers have targeted sports organizations with booby-trapped emails sent by fake people, stolen passwords and malware. Since 2023, new employees of the Paris COJO have been trained in the prevention of email cyberattacks, particularly phishing.

According to Ciaran Martin, who headed Britain’s National Cyber ​​Security Centre, Russia’s track record makes it “the most obvious disruptive threat” to the Paris Games. The scheduling of events, television broadcasting and ticketing could be targeted, he believes.

“Imagine: all the athletes arrive at the scheduled time, but the ticket office is broken” and half of the spectators are blocked at the entrance, says Mr. Martin, who now teaches at the Blavatnik School of Government of the University of Oxford. “Are we delaying the event? Or do we have the world’s elite athletes compete in front of a half-empty stadium for the most important event of their lives? Even being faced with such a decision is a failure. »

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