Warnings Over Cyber Security At The Paris Olympics

Organisers of the Olympic Games in Paris are reinforcing cyber security precautions as law enforcement and intelligence agencies warn of a surge in cyber attacks ahead of the Games, which commence on  Friday 26th July as experts predict that cyber threats will increase tenfold during these Paris Summer Games 2024. 

This international event will attract considerable attention, including from cyber criminals looking to exploit security vulnerabilities due to factors like the large amount of personal data collected, the complex IT infrastructures involved, and the significant increase in online activity. 

Previous Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and Korea have been subject to major online disruption.

Ilia Sotnikov, who is VP of User Experience at data security firm Netwrix,  explains what organisations involved in the Summer Games 2024 should do now to protect their business operations“Cyber criminals are adept at capitalising on the chaos of high-demand events like this one, where the urgency and high volume of online and physical transactions amplify the potential for fraudulent activities... Stores, restaurants, hotels, transport companies, and other local organisations can expect a significant increase in cyber threats, including phishing, ransomware, and business email compromise (BEC), as attackers look to take advantage of any vulnerability during this massive event." 

With global attention focused on the 2024 Olympics, organisations need to reassess their security efforts and Sotnikov offers five recommendations on improving security measures within the limited time remaining:-

Conduct Employee Training: Organisations must ensure that everyone is prepared to handle cyber threats, as well as that awareness remains high and best practices are applied throughout the event. “This training should include, explaining how to recognise and avoid common threats, establishing the procedures to follow in the event of a suspected cyber-attack, and ensuring that employees follow password management best practices, including the use of strong, unique passwords. 

Implement multifactor authentication (MFA: One of the most effective measures for reducing the risk of successful attacks is to step up from simple passwords to MFA. By requiring multiple forms of authentication, MFA makes it much more difficult for attackers to compromise user accounts.  

Review access rights: Every organisation should have its security specialists review the access rights of all identities in the system and remove excessive privileges, even if it has never been done before. The goal is to strictly enforce the least privilege principle, which means that each user has just enough privileges to perform their tasks. This step is crucial to reducing the attack surface because it minimises the damage that can be done by a malicious employee or an intruder who compromises their account. 

Create or improve an incident response plan (IRP):  An organisation’s IRP provides step-by-step guidance on responding to attacks, breaches, discovery of vulnerabilities, and other security events. However, simply creating an IRP is not sufficient; organisations need to practice their plan before the Games 2024 to make sure everything works properly, and everyone is aware of their responsibilities.

Ensure the security of the supply chain:  An organisation’s supply chain involves multiple parties and interconnected systems, each with varying levels of cyber security readiness. “Every organisation should keep in mind that every component of their supply chain can become a gateway for cyber criminals and that attacks on their service providers, suppliers, partners, and contractors will also intensify during the Summer Games 2024. 

“The over-arching goal for all organisations involved in the Paris Summer Games 2024, from the smallest to the largest, is to ensure that everyone is trained to deal with cyber threats and that necessary cyber security measures are in place to protect data, identities, and infrastructure.” Solnikov says.

Netwrix    |    WEF Forum   |    CheckPoint   |     Govtech   |    Reuters

Image: IoC

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https://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/guarding-gold-cybersecurity-challenges-ahead-of-the-paris-olympics#:~:text=“Paris%202024%20is%20getting%20ready,28%2DSept.%208%20Paralympics.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/06/paris-olympics-2024-cybersecurity-experts-cyber-threats/