The Summer Olympics and tensions over the war in Ukraine are likely to make Paris a tempting target for various hacking attempts, including from rival countries, France’s top cybersecurity official said Monday.
Vincent Strubel, head of France’s cybersecurity agency, known as ANSSI, said in an interview that the Olympics faced threats from rival countries, criminals using ransomware and Russian-aligned “hacktivists” who use their computer skills to promote their political messages.
French officials, including Mr. Strubel, are in Washington this week for consultations with cybersecurity officials. The Paris Olympics will run from July 26th to August 11th.
The opening ceremony of the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea was marred by a cyber attack that caused internet outages. Security firms were quick to blame Russia and the Fancy Bear hacker group linked to Moscow’s intelligence services for the attack.
Mr Strubel said the Paris opening ceremony could also be the target of a cyber attack by a state actor. He did not name a country, but French President Emmanuel Macron said he had “no doubt” that Russia would try to target the Paris Olympics. He did not give details.
While Russian athletes will participate in Paris, they will not compete under their country’s flag. Russia has been banned from the Olympics for illegally annexing Ukrainian territory.
“The geopolitical landscape, and the war in Ukraine in particular, will be a factor in assessing the threat to the Games because actions by state actors are a very real possibility, which we are preparing for,” Mr Strubel said. “But it’s also a real factor in terms of hacktivism. Many actors these days are pro-Russian.”
Cyber attacks by hackers based in Russia have increased since the war in Ukraine began two years ago, Mr Strubel said. Most of these attacks were relatively simple, aimed at temporarily taking down websites or servers.
“Every time France has made a political gesture of support for Ukraine in the last two years, there have been many denial-of-service attacks targeting French institutions,” Mr Strubel said.
In addition to the possibility of state or government hacking efforts, France is preparing for ransomware attacks against businesses and organizations. France, like the United States, has been hit in recent years by a wave of ransomware attacks that have affected local authorities and hospitals.
Such criminal operations, Mr. Strubel said, will likely increase during the Games.
“We expect cybercrime, organized crime,” he said. “For people who want to make money, the Olympics can be like Black Friday every day for two weeks. The pressure to pay ransoms will increase for all entities that expect to do a lot of business during the Olympics.”
For the past two years, sports federations, stadiums and local authorities in areas where events will take place have been working with ANSSI on security issues. They are also trained to improve their answers.
The goal, Mr. Strubel said, is to prevent the worst attacks on the most critical infrastructure and help train others to ensure that small attacks do not spread and become catastrophic.
Mr Strubel said his organization would work to obtain information about actual and potential attacks during the Olympics to counter panic and misinformation.
“You cannot expect not to have cyber attacks during the Games. there will be cyber attacks,” he said. “Part of that responsibility will be to keep the media, our international partners and our international partners informed in a timely manner of what is actually happening to avoid the same kind of panic.”
