Tokyo Olympics 2020: Tracking the Cyber Threat Landscape
As the Tokyo Olympics officially kick off, news of cyberattacks and disruptions is already emerging. Earlier this week, the U.S. FBI issued a warning that threat actors are highly likely to be targeting all organizations and “entities associated with the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.”
As recently as yesterday, July 22, 2021, Japanese government officials indicated that credentials to the Tokyo Olympic ticket portal were leaked. The stolen data included login IDs and passwords that one anonymous Japanese government official admitted would enable access to account holders’ names, addresses, bank account information, and more.
If recent past Olympics are any indicator, cyber threat activity during the Summer Tokyo Olympics will reach or possibly exceed historic highs. In fact, all four of the previous Olympics over the past decade or so have faced various cyberattacks and disruptions, including:
2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics: Major systems for the international event—which consisted of more than 10,000 PCs, 20,000 mobile devices, 6,300 Wi-Fi routers, and 300 servers—were disrupted during opening ceremonies in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Initially thought to be North Korea nation-state threat actors, further investigation pointed to Russia carrying out the attack and intentionally masking it as a North Korean-led campaign.
