Dizzying. Only three years will have passed since the Tokyo 2020 Games, but the threat of cyberattacks on the Paris 2024 Games has reached a fever pitch. According to the director of technology of the OCOG, Bruno Marie-Rose, the number of computer attacks could be “eight to ten times” higher than that recorded for the previous edition in Japan. But the former sprinter explained on Monday, April 24, at the opening in Madrid of a test center opened by Atos, one of the IOC’s global partners: the number of attacks had already increased eightfold between Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Comment by Christophe Nivet, director at Atos of the technological integration of the Paris 2024 Games, quoted by AFP: “At the Tokyo Games, we had 450 million attacks and 4.4 billion threats, or 800 per second. But there was no impact on the Games. In case of threats, we were able to block all flows before impact.” For the Paris 2024 Games, the risk is everywhere. It could come from hackers looking to steal data from the organizers, but also from cyber attackers looking for security holes in the systems already installed, or even from a hijacking of data, for example from fake ticket sales sites. The war in Ukraine intensifies the risk of attacks by pro-Russian groups. Bruno Marie-Rose recognizes this: “The Olympics are a target for geopolitical propaganda. The war in Ukraine is accompanied by a cyberwar. We are particularly afraid of state attacks. The worst would be attacks that would cause an interruption or disruption of the competitions.”
