Cyber attackers are also taking advantage of the 2024 Olympics for covert attacks. This was demonstrated by a significant increase in spam emails. There were already around 2020 million cyber attacks at the 450 Summer Games in Tokyo. Partners and supply chains should be particularly protected.
Current results from the Bitdefender Antispam Lab show a significant increase in spam emails in the run-up to the Summer Olympics in Paris. 16 percent of all spam messages in May and June were addressed to Germans, followed by France with 27 percent and Ireland with 22 percent. In addition to classic phishing and fraud, an increase in attacks on partners in the event's supply chain, attacks with a state background, disinformation campaigns and AI-supported approaches can also be expected.
Olympics Tokyo 2020: 450 million cyber attacks
Due to the high level of public interest, the Olympic Games are a prime target for fraudsters and cybercriminals. For example, around 2020 million cyberattacks were directed at the 450 Summer Games in Tokyo. Most of the perpetrators attempted to steal victims' financial data. In addition, many attacks in the past have been politically motivated. During the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, an arm of the Russian secret service GRU targeted individuals and organizations involved in the event with a sophisticated phishing campaign. The 2012 London Olympics also saw attacks whose methods pointed to Russian hacker groups such as APT 28 (Fancy Bear) and APT 29 (Cozy Bear). Hackers also launched watering hole attacks: they identified websites that users from companies in the supply chain visited in order to then spread malware via their devices.
During this year's Summer Games in Paris, similar attacks as in the past are to be expected. However, the hackers are also setting new priorities:
- Increase in supply chain attacks: Cybercriminals are likely to attack not only the official websites of the organizing committee, but also increasingly suppliers and partners who are in contact with the committee or host country. Their main goal will probably be to gain access to critical infrastructure such as ticket sales systems or transmission networks.
- State-sponsored attacks: Since the International Olympic Committee has barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the opening ceremonies of the Games, France expects Russia to retaliate with state-sponsored attacks on companies that are crucial to the running of the Games, such as transport companies and energy suppliers.
- Disinformation campaigns: In the current tense geopolitical climate, we can expect an increase in disinformation campaigns to deter participation.
- AI-assisted attacks: Chatbots allow attackers to create far more convincing phishing emails than before. Large language models have paved the way for new malware automation tools and the possibility of data poisoning attacks. Deepfakes and voice cloning tools have also emerged as significant security risks.
Spam flood for the 2024 Olympics
A Bitdefender Antispam Lab study also showed a high volume of spam emails related to the upcoming Olympic Games, which is problematic for several reasons. The flood of spam can overwhelm email systems and make it difficult for recipients to distinguish between legitimate communication and fraud. Spam also allows senders to use the data collected to create detailed profiles of targets that can fall into the hands of criminals who use the data to commit fraud.
In addition, messages with such content often target vulnerable people, such as seniors, who are more likely to be victims of email scams. The number of spam emails (including marketing and scams) is expected to increase in the coming weeks. Most Olympic-themed spam messages were received by users in France, Ireland, Germany, the United States and Italy. Bitdefender researchers have also discovered several Olympic-themed lottery scams in recent weeks.
Further expected cyber attacks during the 2024 Olympics
- Phishing attacks pretend to come from official Olympic Games partners and ask recipients to click on malicious links or provide personal information.
- Fake websites and apps imitate official Olympic platforms and trick users into downloading malware or submitting confidential information.
- Ticket fraud involving counterfeit tickets for Olympic events at inflated or heavily discounted prices.
- Public Wi-Fi networks at and around Olympic sites can be hotspots for cybercriminals to intercept data.
- Fake travel and accommodation offers to trick consumers into paying for services that do not exist.
- Fake ads and platforms to sell supposed Olympic fan merchandise.
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