The cyberwarriors, like the Olympic competitors, are hard at work preparing for the Paris Games.
They examined and analysed their opponents' strengths, strategies, and weaknesses. These might include anyone from young showoffs and ransomware gangs to hackers with a history of malicious cyberattacks. However, unlike the 10,500 Olympians who will converge on France's capital on 26 July, the Games' cybersecurity engineers hope to avoid the spotlight.
For them, the equivalent of a medal will be completing the Olympics and Paralympics without mishap. It would imply that their layers of digital defences can withstand attempts to disable computer and information systems critical to the Games.
"My dream for the Olympics is that technology and cybersecurity aren't discussed, because that would mean it was a non-issue," said Jérémy Couture, head of the Paris Games' cybersecurity hub.
Its mission of detecting, analysing, and responding to cyberthreats is so sensitive and crucial to the Games' success that event organisers keep its location a secret.
While officials in charge of preventing cyberattacks during the Games are reluctant to reveal anything about their job, they are confident that hackers will keep them busy this summer. Those might include fraudsters, thrill-seeking young troublemakers, and other countries with a history of harmful cyberattacks.
Targets include not only the Games themselves, but also the infrastructure that supports them, such as transportation networks and supply systems.
Attackers could include "hacktivists'' looking to make a political statement, as well as cyber extortionists wanting a profit. Nowadays, it can be difficult to tell the difference between a hacktivist and a state-sponsored cyber operator operating as one.
Countries with demonstrated offensive hacking capabilities are among the most dangerous cyber enemies, having the potential to shame and punish France and the International Olympic Committee.
Paris' cybersecurity teams sought to learn from such experiences, meeting with professionals who had previously worked in Pyeongchang.
Outpost24, a cybersecurity group located in Sweden, awarded Paris' preparations a thumbs up in a report released this week, but claimed its analysis revealed flaws in the Games' online infrastructure. It was assigned a rating of "not quite a gold medal, but certainly a silver."
"Just as pickpockets and ticket touts target groups of tourists, cybercriminals will be conscious of increased online traffic towards the Paris 2024 games and will hope to capitalise," the authors of the paper reported.
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France: “Cyberwarriors” prepare ahead against online attacks ahead of Olympic Games
