The 2024 Paris Olympics games have been going on for the last two weeks and are now approaching their closing days as most events come to the finals. However, it seems like the organisers have had alot to do when it comes to the IT system as a new ransomware attack seems to have hit the games’ venue as confirmed by the French authorities.
According to the Paris prosecutor, hackers targeted the French National Museum network’s IT system, a venue that holds about 40 museums on Sunday. This network of museums includes the Gran Palais, a venue that was repurposed as a sporting venue to host fencing and taekwondo events for the summer Olympics. The hackers allegedly left a ransom note demanding a payment in cryptocurrency or they would leak data stolen in the attack.
This comes at a time when the team in charge has had to brace against 68 potential cyberattacks spotted over the first few days of the Olympics.
“No impact has been identified on the staging of events for the 2024 Olympic Games,” the prosecutor’s office said.
France’s cybersecurity agency had been well prepared for such scenarios well before the games kicked off performing penetration testing and raising awareness “on a massive scale.”
“The goal for us is not to block 100% of the attacks that will happen during the Olympics,” Vincent Strubel, the director of ANSSI, said in April. “The goal is to block most of the attacks by raising the security level.”
While the French authorities continue to conduct investigations on the various incidents, it’s quite clear that the games have attracted alot of threat actors, a scenario that was quite expected.
