The Cyber Threat Alliance today announced the publication of its first joint Threat Assessment, focusing on the 2020 Olympics. This report provides a summary of the threat environment facing the 2020 Olympics as well as recommendations for the Tokyo Organizing Committee as they prepare for the games. The Threat Assessment will help focus CTA members’ information sharing activities for the Games and will enable members to develop planning scenarios based on the threat landscape. Here are some of the highlights from the report:
- Nation-state actors pose the highest threat and are most likely to conduct disruptive attacks and disinformation campaigns against the Olympics.
- This includes targeted data leaks, disruption of events with DDoS attacks, compromising systems with ransomware, or affecting physical infrastructure.
- Based on historical targeting of the Olympics, CTA assesses that anti-doping agencies and experts and services supporting the game’s operations and logistics (such as wi-fi networks and ticketing systems) are also at high risk of compromise.
- Other targets could include tourists and spectators, supply chain and infrastructure providers, and Japanese officials and partner governments.
- Cyber-criminals will be highly active due to the large number of potential victims. We are already seeing cyber-enabled scams and other criminal activity.
- CTA recommends that the Organizing Committee, Japanese government, and other entities supporting the Olympics focus their current efforts on implementing best practices, information sharing, coordinated planning around cybersecurity incidents, and regular examination of critical systems.
CTA recommends that anyone with responsibility for Olympics-related cybersecurity review this report for actions to further improve their security posture. Our recommendations apply not just to the Olympics, but also to any major event in which governments, companies, and corporate sponsors are involved, and which heads of state, executives, and networks defenders, must plan for and support.
This CTA Threat Assessment report showcases the value of the industry collaborating to solve the big cyber problems of today. You can download the full Threat Assessment report here: CTA 2020 Olympics Threat Assessment Report
“As part of our sharing activities, CTA enables member companies to work together on developing reports like these, not just on a one-time basis, but in a sustained manner over time. The resulting analysis is much stronger because it comes from such a wide array of viewpoints. We look forward to producing more of these assessments in the future,” said Michael Daniel, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CTA.
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