Paris Olympics 2024 and the fear of hackers

In the context of the development of digital technology and complex international geopolitical developments, experts predict that the 2024 Paris Olympics will be the Olympics with the greatest risk of being hacked ever.

Countdown clock with 100 days left until the 2024 Paris Olympics on April 13. Photo: REUTERS

According to the Paris 2024 Olympic Organizing Committee, if the hacker attack first appeared at the Montreal 1976 Olympics in Canada, by the Tokyo 2021 Olympics there were 450 million attacks, then in Paris 2024, it is predicted that there could be up to 4 billion attacks...

The number given by the committee is a truly worrying security alarm for the biggest sporting event on the planet, and also poses unprecedented challenges for French cybersecurity agencies. Technology is now present in every application of social life, making hacker attacks more diverse and complex. Cybersecurity expert Baptiste Robert said that the first target could be related to important French infrastructure such as the electricity distribution network, radio and television broadcasting or hospitals... Hackers could also infiltrate the competition management system, distort the results of athletes' competitions, and disrupt the information network.

As at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, a period that was considered the “stone age of information technology,” hacker attacks disrupted the information system for 48 hours, forcing many competitions to be postponed. By the time of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the attacks were much more sophisticated and massive, but event organizers had anticipated the risks, had anti-hacker solutions, and even incorporated them into the design of construction projects and sports infrastructure systems. Therefore, the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 are considered successful in terms of cybersecurity despite being attacked massively.

The 2024 Paris Olympics will face a new challenge as hackers can take advantage of the latest advances in technology, artificial intelligence (AI). Betsy Cooper, a cybersecurity expert at the Aspen Institute in the US, said that the world is entering an era in which it is easy to influence sports through AI, from cheating on electronic refereeing systems to deleting or disrupting results. Meanwhile, according to experts, in the field of cybersecurity, France seems to be behind the US and Israel. However, during a visit to Singapore in early April, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin still affirmed: Cybersecurity companies are among the elite of French industry and are famous for their level worldwide.

Faced with the threat of terrorism and an expected record number of visitors to France, the French government continues to improve its security system while monitoring and adding additional measures depending on the situation on a daily basis. The first measures will be applied in early July. According to the French Interior Ministry, about 45,000 regular security personnel are expected to be mobilized during the Olympics, along with the assistance of nearly 300,000 private guards.

MINH CHAU

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/olympic-paris-2024-va-noi-lo-tin-tac-post737744.html