With all the spotlight on the athletes, will the 2.0 pirates try to act in the shadows? The level of cyber threat in France continued to “increase” in 2023, according to the French cybersecurity agency (Anssi), which fears that the Paris Olympics this summer will give cybercriminals “additional opportunities to act.”
“The total number of ransomware attacks (…) is 30% higher than that observed in 2022,” writes Anssi (National Cybersecurity Agency), in its overview of the cyber threat, which is set to be published on Tuesday. These attacks, which block access to an organization’s computer system and demand a ransom to decrypt the data, increased last year after a 46% decrease in 2022.
“This 2023 overview is worrying both in terms of the absolute increase in cyberattacks and all the different evolving components,” says Vincent Strubel, director of Anssi. He also believes that the Paris Olympics (from July 26 to August 11) will be “a target for all types of cyberattacks,” representing “a real-life test” of the country’s cybersecurity capabilities.
Rise in attacks on mobile phones
Anssi is responsible for protecting the 350 entities related to the competition, including 80 critical ones. It fears that hackers may take advantage of the Olympics “to monitor or extort organizers and participants” and seek to “tarnish the image of the host country, or even disrupt the event.” Anssi also expresses concern about the increasing number of attacks on mobile phones “to spy on targeted individuals,” driven by the commercial development of intrusion tools.
“Companies provide highly sophisticated malicious code (…) to companies and individuals with malicious intent” to take control of devices, the report warns. These attacks, which number “by the tens,” target in particular “executives,” according to Strubel. “Strategic and industrial espionage is the threat that has mobilized our teams the most this year,” writes Anssi. “Think tanks, research institutes,” and “telecommunications companies” are among the main targets.
The agency reports detecting potential “pre-positioning” activities in 2023, discreet attempts to take control of a network to be able to shut it down or destroy it at an opportune moment, in the energy sector. “We have equipped ourselves to be able to respond to this type of emerging threat,” affirms Strubel. In the context of the war in Ukraine, and even though sabotage attacks have been limited to the conflict zone for now, he considers it one of his “major challenges.”
