Cyber threats we can expect at the Paris Olympics
Nation state-sponsored threat actors, organized cybercriminal cartels and hacktivists are expected to be active during the upcoming 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Paralympics, which will be hosted against a fractured geopolitical landscape, including Russia's war in Ukraine and Israel's conflict with Hamas. There will likely be three types:
Nation-state sabotage: Russian nation state-level cyber units will likely attempt to sabotage the 2024 Games, something that we have already observed in previous years during both the 2018 Winter Olympics as well as the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics in which Russia’s GRU military intelligence service engaged in cyber reconnaissance, targeting officials and organizations involved in the events. With Russia being suspended from participation as a sanction from the International Olympic Committee for its invasion of Ukraine, operations launched by Moscow-aligned cyber forces, such as Sandworm (a group that attacked previous events with the “Olympic Destroyer” malware), will likely surge in retaliation. Motivation for these efforts would likely include retaliation, damaging the reputation of the Paris Olympics to promote its own 2024 World Friendship Games in September, and to counter French President Emmanuel Macron’s pro-Ukraine position.