Cybercrime is likely to pose the biggest security threat at the Paris Olympics later this year, a senior official from the international police organization Interpol said on Friday.
Lyon-based Interpol, which helps share intelligence between security forces around the world, worked closely with French authorities to investigate cyber, terrorism and other identified criminal risks.
“Cyber is going to be the biggest persistent or continuing threat,” Stephen Kavanagh, Interpol’s executive director of police services, told AFP. “Whether it’s interfering with ticket purchases, systems within events, or transportation systems, cybercrime is always present everywhere.
“There are a huge number of locations (for attacks),” added Kavanagh, a former British police officer and candidate to become Interpol’s director-general later this year.
Japanese telecommunications company NTT, which provided IT security for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed due to the pandemic, reported 450 million individual cyber attacks during the previous Games, compared to 2012. That’s twice as many as at the London Olympics.
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Many of these were so-called DDoS attacks that paralyzed servers hosting websites, as well as hacking, email spoofing, phishing attacks, and fake website attempts.
U.S. authorities have warned ahead of the Tokyo Olympics that the Games will become an increasingly popular target for organized cyber gangs and state-sponsored hackers.
A Russian cyber group is suspected of releasing the so-called “Olympic Destroyer” malware just before the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where Russian athletes were banned from participating.
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“When the world comes to one country, sometimes you get the best and the worst,” said Kavanagh, who has made embracing technology and innovation a central part of his pitch for Interpol’s top job. Ta.
He expressed confidence that France could carry out its very ambitious plans for the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, when athletes will float down the Seine in front of up to 600,000 spectators.
He said French security services were working closely with British security services, which guarded the 2012 London Olympics and the Thames boat parade for the late Queen Elizabeth the same year.
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In 2012, when an estimated one million people lined London’s River Thames to watch the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee flotilla, Mr Kavanagh was at the time responsible for counter-terrorism operations for the Metropolitan Police.
“There is precedent here. Of course France can make it happen (the opening ceremony). France was closely involved in the 2012 Olympics and the 2012 Rivers Competition. The understanding and learning between the two countries is amazing. A thing,” he added.
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