The FBI has warned about the possibility of attacks during the Olympic Games in Tokyo in the country, although the agency has no evidence of attacks planned yet.
Even though the FBI is not aware of a cyber threat against the Summer Olympics, the agency encourages organizations to maintain effective security measures.
“The FBI to date is not aware of any specific cyber threat against these Olympics, but encourages partners to remain vigilant and maintain best practices in their network and digital environments,” the US intelligence service said in a private industry notification issued on Monday.
As the FBI noted, attacks against the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics might involve various types of threats. Some of these include distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, ransomware, and phishing campaigns. Such attacks could disrupt live broadcasts or even prevent them from happening. They could also impact digital infrastructure supporting the Olympics and compromise sensitive data, which can then be encrypted.
The FBI says the attackers’ goals would be to make money, sow confusion, discredit adversaries, and increase their notoriety.
This year’s Summer Olympics are expected to attract more attention from malicious actors, given that they are the first to be fully broadcast and digital.
The FBI noted one data breach incident when the data of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee was compromised earlier this year.
“In late May 2021, Japanese information technology equipment and service company Fujitsu disclosed a breach that compromised data from several of its corporate and government clients, including the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee and the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism,” the FBI said.
And in 2019, in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, the Olympics staff has issued warnings about phishing campaigns impersonating the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020).
Image: Erik Zunder
