2024-02-28 10:38:37
In its Cyber Threat Overview, the French Information Security Agency (Anssi) estimates that this summer’s Olympic Games will be “a target for all types of cyberattacks”,
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The level of computer threats in France continued to increase in 2023, warns the French Computer Security Agency (Anssi), which fears that the Paris Olympic Games this summer will offer hackers “additional opportunities to act”.
“The total number of ransomware attacks […] is 30% higher than that observed in 2022,” writes Anssi in its overview of the cyber threat, published Tuesday February 27. 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.
“Extort the organizers”
“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, interviewed by AFP. 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.
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 very 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,” target in particular “senior executives,” says Mr. Strubel.
“We armed ourselves”
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 Mr. 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”.
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