Paris Olympics 2024: The rising threat of cyber attacks

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are right around the corner, but the games present cybersecurity risks. According to NTT Corporation and BT Security data, the number of cyber attacks from the past games has increased, with 212 million during the London 2012 games and 450 million from the Tokyo 2020 games.

Arctic Wolf CEO and president Nick Schneider joins Asking For A Trend to give insight into cybersecurity threats at the Paris Olympics.

Schneider outlines what the cyber attacks will look like: "I think folks will be attacking again the supply chains. I think the bad actors will be looking for vulnerabilities. I do think we'll probably see some nation state activity, and that will get into these environments through some of the less sophisticated means, but also through more sophisticated means...I think AI presents a new opportunity for the bad actors and a new vector even of attack, as an attack surface in itself, and that all provides on the context of this large global stage, a massive opportunity for the bad actors. "

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Asking for a Trend

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

2024 summer Olympic Games in Paris quickly approaching.

According to various estimates, more than 15 million visitors are expected during the event.

With all this attention also comes, of course, the unwanted eye of cyber criminals.

The Olympics have long been a target to cyber attacks, the Tokyo Games seeing a staggering 450 million cyber threats 2.5 times the number of attacks seen during the London Olympic Games.

So what is in store for this year in Paris Arctic Wolf, CEO and President Nick Schneider joins us now to discuss Nick.

Thanks for joining us.

Actually, Nick.

Um Before we get into that, I actually was interested since we have, you have such a unique insight here.

Um Kind of broadly higher level Nick, you know, we see signs that of course, the economy could be cooling against that backdrop.

Nick.

I'm just curious in your industry, what is spending like on security right now?

What, what is demand, Nick?

Is it, is it strong?

Yeah, first of all, thanks for having me.

Um I think cybersecurity is an industry uh that, you know, unfortunately is uh constantly in high demand.

I think the threat actors are becoming more sophisticated.

I think there are new opportunities, you know, particular A I for those threat actors to uh leverage new techniques with organizations.

Uh So the demand environment is, is quite high.

And I think you're seeing that uh through the resiliency of the cybersecurity market, you know, in the public markets itself.

All right, Nick Le let's skip ahead now to, to an event that I'm sure is on your industry's radar.

That is the Olympics, as we were mentioning.

Um the games often uh uh the, the receiving end, the target of cyber attacks.

I'm curious, Nick, do you expect that same pattern to hold this year?

Yeah, I think it will.

Um you know, you have an event where there's broad global scale.

Um millions of people are attending, you know, thousands of vendors are being used, you know, throughout the event over a, you know, relatively short period of time, which just presents an enormous opportunity for supply chain attacks.

Uh And especially, you know, as much as those organizations would, you know, attempt to prepare, they're asked to do a lot in a, in a relatively short amount of time.

And a lot of these organizations are standing up, you know, standing up operations uh in a location or uh in an, in a type of event that they're not used to, uh which just prevents an opportunity for the bad actors.

And I think on top of that with the global stage, some of the geopolitical tensions will come across, you know, more notably, which is an opportunity again for bad actors.

And then, you know, I suspect we're gonna see uh some increased use of, of A I kind of throughout the games both in the way, in the way in which they're kind of presented, but also the way in which uh they're produced.

Uh and that itself will also present a new opportunity.

I think for bad actors throughout, you know, this Olympic Games, when you mentioned bad actors, Nick, who are we talking about there?

I mean, are we talking about, you know, is it criminal gangs?

Is it rogue states all the above all of the above?

Uh And I think especially in an event of this scale uh of this magnitude and especially since it involves um such a, you know, broad set of organizations or broad set of, you know, countries, um you're gonna see a, a mix of kind of all of the above uh throughout, you know, the event itself.

And when we talk about the, the attacks themselves, Nick, what do they look like?

What, what form do they take?

Yeah, they'll, they'll take all of the standard, you know, forms of attack, right?

So I think folks will be attacking again, the supply chains.

I think uh the bad actors will be looking for vulnerabilities.

I do think we'll probably see some nation state activity.

Uh and that will get, you know, into these environments through some of the less sophisticated means, but also through, you know, more sophisticated means.

And, and like I mentioned earlier, I think A I presents a new opportunity for the bad actors and a new vector even of attack uh as an attack surface in itself.

Uh And that all provides on the context of this large global stage, a massive opportunity for the bad actors.

And it just means that those that are participating in the games are a part of the, you know, the game's production need to really remain vigilant and do what is necessary to become, you know, protected as an organization.

You mentioned A I there, Nick.

So you would expect perhaps that actors use, use A I.

On the other hand, though, would you expect cyber security officials to also integrate um deploy A I defensively?

Yeah, I think we'll see uh uh A I being used in both directions.

So the good news is it can be used, you know, defensively.

Uh the bad news is it can be used uh offensively.

Um And you know, I think there's a healthy balance there.

II I think right now just the sheer breadth of the ability to use A I in A, in a negative, you know, fashion um probably slightly outweighs the benefits of the, of the proactive, you know, response with regards to A I but that doesn't discount, you know, all of the blocking and tackling that organizations can do.

Um, that is more standard, you know, cybersecurity hygiene uh that could really help them, you know, prevent anything significant Nick Ter uh, terrific discussion and a really interesting uh topic.

Thanks so much for taking the time to chat today.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.