Menu
Between July 26th and September 8th, the French capital will play host to thousands of athletes, volunteers, and journalists worldwide. The event, watched by billions of television viewers, will put Paris in the spotlight for more than a month of intense competition.
As with every major event, it becomes a temptation for Black Hat Hackers, baited by the potential media coverage of their attacks, to spoil the party. The most complex challenge for the organizers then becomes: thwarting their plans. In the age of total interconnectivity, the risk of cyberattacks is omnipresent. The Olympic Games have, in the past, been prime targets.
Flashback. In 2020, the Tokyo Olympic Games were the victim of over 450 million cyberattacks, a figure that illustrates the seriousness of the threat. Experts then predicted that the number of attacks during the Paris Games could be multiplied by eight or ten, raising legitimate concerns about the ability of the French system to withstand such pressure.
Ultimately, Paris 2024 will have to manage a gigantic IT infrastructure: almost 200 applications created for the event, around a hundred websites, and some 12,000 workstations spread over a hundred temporary sites. A multitude of elements to manage in real-time considerably increases vulnerabilities and potential points of attack for cybercriminals.
And yet, while the budget for physical security is 450 million euros, only 10 million euros have been allocated to cybersecurity. Faced with terrorist threats for many years, has Paris chosen to prioritize the threat of terrorist attacks on its Olympic Games and its population, to the detriment of the protection of its IT systems?
The selection of IT service providers by the French government adds an obvious issue to the question of cybersecurity.
Alibaba, in charge of Cloud infrastructure, and ATOS, the French IT giant, are responsible for facility management and a major part of cybersecurity. These two structures are to work closely together to ensure the coherence and security of the systems. However, concerns have been raised about the compatibility of Alibaba (the Chinese International Olympic Committee's corporate sponsor), with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the protection of sensitive information. In addition, ATOS is currently going through financial and organizational difficulties that could compromise its ability to ensure IT system security.
Despite these challenges, Paris 2024 has set itself the goal of achieving a "zero incident" policy, affirming their desire to become an example for future global events, in terms of cybersecurity. Gold medal for the French, or even greater disappointment? There are just over 145 days left to find out.
.webp)
