While all the spotlight will be on the athletes, will pirates 2.0 try to operate in the shadows?
The level of computer threats in France continued to “increase” in 2023, according to the French computer security agency (Anssi), which fears that the Paris Olympic Games this summer will offer cybercriminals “additional opportunities to act ".
“The total number of ransomware attacks (…) is 30% higher than that observed in 2022,” writes Anssi (National Agency for Information Systems Security), in its overview of the cyber threat, which must be published on Tuesday.
These attacks, which block access to an organization's computer system and demand the payment of a ransom to decrypt the data, started to rise again last year, after a drop of 46% in 2022.
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“This 2023 panorama is worrying both by the increase in absolute number of cyberattacks and by all the different components that are evolving,” estimates Vincent Strubel, director general of Anssi.
He also believes that the Paris Olympics (from July 26 to August 11) will be “a target for all types of cyberattacks”, which will represent “a life-size test” of the country’s cybersecurity capabilities.
Increase in attacks against cell phones
Anssi is responsible for protecting the 350 entities linked to the competition, including 80 critics.
She fears that computer hackers will take advantage of the Olympics “to monitor or extort the organizers and participants” and seek to “tarnish the image of the host country, or even disrupt the progress” of the event.
Anssi is also concerned about the increase in the number of attacks against mobile phones “in order to spy on targeted individuals”, driven by the commercial development of intrusion tools.
“Some companies provide highly sophisticated malicious codes (…) to companies and individuals with malicious intentions” to take control of devices, the report warns.
These attacks, which number “in the dozens,” particularly target “senior executives,” says Strubel.
“Strategic and industrial espionage is the threat that has mobilized our teams the most” this year, writes Anssi.
“Think groups, research institutes” and even “telecommunications companies” are among the main targets.
Also read: IT security during the 2024 Olympics: “It will be the sales period for cybercrime”
The agency indicates that in 2023 it detected potential “prepositioning” activities, attempts to discreetly take control of a network in order to be able to turn it off or destroy it at an opportune moment, in the energy sector.
“We have armed ourselves to be able to respond to this type of emerging threat,” says Strubel.
In the context of the war in Ukraine, and even if computer sabotage attacks have so far been limited to the conflict zone, he believes that this represents one of his “major challenges”.