Paris Olympics 2024: Is Cybersecurity a Mounting Concern at the Upcoming Summer Games?

“Games Wide Open” – True to the testament of its slogan, the 2024 Paris Olympic Games are all set to welcome athletes, spectators, volunteers, and media from all across the globe. Like every Olympics, the 33rd Olympiad will be a panorama to watch. However, with the rendezvous as big as the Olympics comes the question of security—it may be a killjoy intrigue, but it is an important one to ask. Hence, when the French Sports Minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said, “France will be a safe place”, she ensured that the City of Lights would be well equipped with on-ground security to protect the congregation of people during the Olympics. But the greater risk is still lingering somewhere hidden in bytes.

While the French government plans to flood the streets of Paris with armed soldiers and police authorities, the biggest threat may come from the internet—in the form of Cyberattacks. The conjectures about this became clear when the Paris Olympics Cybersecurity head, Franz Regul, conceded, “We will be attacked.”

Is there a cyber threat brewing for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games?

The anticipation around the 2024 Summer Games is on an all-time adrenaline high. But the headquarters of the Paris Olympic organizing committee is abuzz with agitation about database security. 

Though there are no potential attacks reported yet, in the months leading up to the Summer Games, Mr. Regul and his team are certain that risk will rise exponentially. Given the massive tumult caused by the cyberattacks that took place back in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics and in 2016 at the Rio Olympics – the probability of an attack in the leading months could increase, as per the report of the New York Times.

In 2008, a sophisticated hacking operation called “Operation Shady Rat” stole government data, legal contracts, and email archives. It targeted over 70 private and public organizations across 14 countries – including the International Olympic Committee (IOC) itself. While, in 2016, a group of Russian hackers ‘Fancy Bears’ illegally gained access to IOC’s database and breached the private health data of 29 athletes—including Serena Williams and Simone Biles. 

However, with the technological advancements, the cybersecurity threat will now be assorted. Breach of computer and Wi-Fi networks, meddling with digital ticketing software, malfunctioning in event timers, and disabling the credential scanners are just a few on the list. The contravention of the Wi-Fi network during the 2018 Winter Olympics is one such example of how hackers used modern technology to their advantage. 

The cybersecurity havoc of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

On February 9, 2018, just a few minutes before the commencement of the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, the lights of the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium went dark. The Wi-Fi network, the photograph-transmitting software, and the news coverage equipment suddenly went down. That was the point when the IT authorities realized that the cybersecurity infrastructure was being compromised. 

The cyberattack took out internet access and broadcasting drones, shut down the Pyeongchang 2018 website, and prevented fans from confirming their ticket reservations and attending the ceremony. It turned out that no one anticipated the cyberattack that happened during the Winter Games in 2018. Hence, many even call it the most deceptive hack in history.

But for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the case looked rather different, as many still deem it as a success story. 

2021 Tokyo Olympics – the cybersecurity splendor

This time, the authorities did their homework. The 2018 fiasco gave them an upper hand in understanding what could go wrong and to what extent things may go haywire. Hence, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics’ IT authorities took preventive measures and escalated the situation beforehand, all while catering to the challenges and limitations of holding an Olympics during a pandemic.

There were more than 450 million attempted cyberattacks during the event in July 2021. However, the preemptive presence of a threat intelligence monitoring and analysis system, SOC services, a complete security solutions package, and an expert team of over 200 cybersecurity specialists prevented the attacks from breaching the database. And, the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games IT infrastructure became a model to emulate.

Following the success story of the Tokyo Summer Games, the IOC is looking forward to establishing a more powerful and more preemptive cybersecurity monitoring system – for the event that is too big, too open, and too vulnerable – the 2024 Paris Olympics. With Mr. Franz Regul’s continued supervision of potential threats, the chances of hackers meddling in the system seem lesser to none. And, if the French Cybersecurity team pulls it off, the Paris Games are likely to be hailed as one spectacular extravaganza, don’t you agree?