Securing the games: Paris 2024 braces for unprecedented cybersecurity challenges
FRANCE-The goal of Paris 2024, cybersecurity firms Cisco and Eviden, and the French national agency for information security (ANSSI) is to lessen the effect of cyberattacks. Compared to other large athletic events, like the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, web apps and other Internet-facing assets associated with the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris seem to be more safeguarded against cyberattacks.
Understanding the threat landscape
However, considering the significant interest in the event from nation-state entities, hacktivists, cybercriminals, and other attackers, there are still certain holes that might prove problematic. For example, during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, these bad actors conducted an astounding 450 million attacks against the Games’ linked internet infrastructure. Outpost24 researchers recently mapped every piece of information related to the 2024 Olympic Games that is accessible online. Examining every domain, subdomain, host, Web application, and cloud resource from a third party were all part of this. After doing a similar examination prior to the 2018 FIFA World Cup soccer tournaments in Russia, they came to the conclusion that the exterior assault surface of the Olympics is more safe against compromise.
Identifying vulnerabilities
They discovered many open ports, SSL setup errors, security header problems, domain squatting, and a few privacy concerns including cookie consent infractions among the holes in the Olympics’ infrastructure. According to Stijn Vande Casteele, CSO of Outpost24’s external attack surface management department, the problems provide threat actors with a chance to breach what would otherwise seem to be a rather well-defended attack surface. For example, when an attacker discovers a website that has an expired certificate or returns a 404 error, signaling a faulty URL, they would probably check the site for more vulnerabilities.
Rising concerns and challenges
“Not having basic IT and cyber hygiene under control draws the attention [of attackers] and could indicate potentially more severe opportunities for threat actors” to investigate, according to Vande Casteele. Similarly, Outpost24’s discovery of domain squatting concerns may herald an increase in phishing attempts with an Olympic theme that targets victims for credential theft and other malevolent purposes. “The Olympic Games are a high-profile event and the biggest sport competition in the world,” Vande Casteele states. Attackers have a huge target to work with. “As an organization, you want to discourage them by running a tight, super-secure digital footprint.” According to Vande Casteele, the Paris 2024 Olympics organization manages more than 800 external Web apps across more than 16 distinct cloud service providers and over 700 domains. There are presently nine distinct nations in the EU, Asia, and North America that have systems connected to the Games. The volatility and dynamic character of an attack surface with this complexity, keeping all of this on the radar is a real challenge for the organization’s risk and security stakeholders,” according to him.
Collaboration and coordination
The possibility of a coordinated hack and act of terrorism to disable vital security and surveillance systems during the Games is also a cause for worry. Threat actors launched an astounding 450 million assaults against targets connected to the Games in Tokyo during the 2021 Olympics. Franz Regul, the person in charge of cybersecurity at the Olympics, stated earlier this month to The New York Times that his staff anticipates facing eight to twelve times as many attempts during the current Games.
Working with technological partners and analysts at the International Olympic Committee, Regul’s team has carried out many war scenarios in anticipation of the assaults. According to the Times, they have also implemented a bug bounty program that pays researchers to identify and fix exploitable flaws in the technical infrastructure that supports the Games. “The Games are a prime opportunity for cybercriminals, nation-state actors, hacktivists, and terrorists to exploit the vulnerabilities of a high-profile event with a global audience.”
Call to action: Boycott Pairs olympics 2024
Boycott olympics 2024 in response to French police brutality and violations of human rights in order to strongly pressure the French government to put an end to these linked concerns. Security is the main point in organizing a best event from which France is not performing well. The Paris Olympics should be boycotted due to unsafe places for visitors and racism issues.
Although the government took steps to lessen the consequences of the cost-of-living problem, the effect on the most disadvantaged people was still a big worry.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INSEE) of France, at the beginning of 2022, 9 million people, or 14% of the population, lived in material and social deprivation in metropolitan France, with 10% of households not having enough money to heat their homes adequately.
