With the French government warning ransomware attacks directed at the Olympics are ‘inevitable’, ExtraHop research reveals France experienced the second most ransomware attacks in the last 12 months, just behind the US, with organizations averaging more than nine incidents and paying nearly $2 million in ransoms.
Mark Bowling, Chief Information Security and Risk Officer, ExtraHop, said: “With millions of people visiting France and a heightened geopolitical landscape, it comes as no surprise that both nation-state actors and cybercriminals, perhaps with the active approval and encouragement of those same nation-states, are actively targeting the games.
“Organizations associated with government services, critical infrastructure, and entertainment must be on high alert to avoid potential catastrophe, geopolitical embarrassment and notable financial loss.”
Bowling continued: “To prepare, it’s critical that businesses have contingency plans in place and are ready to respond if and when an incident occurs, and then recover effectively from the incident. Security teams must also be extra vigilant and identify and plug any security blind spots, such as misconfigurations and vulnerabilities, that attackers can exploit to gain access to their data and assets.
The French government cyber security agency warned that ransomware attacks directed at the Games would be ‘inevitable’
For two years, French officials have been preparing to fight off what they to be an unprecedented level of cyber-attacks at the Games – identifying a ‘kaleidoscope’ of threats that could come from criminal groups, states eager to undermine the Games, “hacktivists” and gamblers.
The agency is confident security teams can cope – but despite the threat of such attacks, but said it was “unrealistic” to expect that all attacks could be avoided.
“It’s absolutely certain and inevitable that ransomware attacks will occur during the Games,” the agency said. “And statistically, there is a high chance that ransomware attacks will affect actors who will be involved in the Games.”
Ransomware exploits security flaws to encrypt and block computer systems, demanding a ransom from a user or an organisation to unlock them.
The aim, said Anssi, is “to ensure that most attacks fail, and that we react quickly and effectively to attacks that we cannot avoid, in order to limit their impact.”
