French cybersecurity agency Anssi reports low-impact incidents targeting government, transport, and telecoms, with no effect on Olympic competitions
French authorities revealed recently that over 140 cyberattacks were reported during the Paris Olympics, though none managed to disrupt the competitions. France’s cybersecurity agency, Anssi, had been on high alert throughout the games, monitoring potential threats to the organising committee, ticketing, and transport systems.
Between July 26 and August 11, Anssi recorded 119 low-impact “security events” and 22 incidents where malicious actors successfully targeted a victim’s information system. The attacks primarily targeted government entities as well as sports, transport, and telecoms infrastructure.
Of the incidents reported, a third were downtime incidents, half of which were due to denial-of-service attacks aimed at overwhelming servers. Other incidents involved attempted or successful compromises, data disclosures, and similar threats.
Anssi described the cyber events as being of low impact overall. The agency also confirmed that a ransomware attack in early August affected the Grand Palais and about 40 other museums in France. However, these incidents did not impact any systems related to the Olympics.
Ransomware exploits security vulnerabilities to encrypt and block computer systems, demanding a ransom to unlock them. The 2021 Tokyo Olympics reported 450 million such attempts, twice as many as the 2012 London Games. Before the Paris Games, Paris Games technology director Marie-Rose Bruno had anticipated “eight to 10 times more” cyberattacks than those seen in Tokyo.