The FBI urges athletes of Beijing Olympics to leave their devices at home while also raising concerns about potential for cyberattacks against the event.
- The FBI warns of threat actors potentially targeting the 2022 Winter Olympics.
- The attack would seek to block or disrupt the event's live broadcast.
The FBI urges athletes of Beijing Olympics to leave their devices at home while also raising concerns about potential for cyberattacks against the event.
“The FBI to date is not aware of any specific cyber threat against the Olympics, but encourages partners to remain vigilant and maintain best practises in their network and digital environments," said the US security service in a private industry notification (PIN) issued on Tuesday.
The FBI said entities related to the games should prepare for a “broad range of cyber activities to disrupt these events”, including ransomware, denial of service (DDoS) attacks, malware, phishing campaigns, data theft or leaks, social engineering, disinformation campaigns or insider threats.
The attack would attempt to “block or disrupt the live broadcast of the event, steal or leak sensitive data, or impact public or private digital infrastructure supporting the Olympics.”
According to Citizen Lab report, the official app for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, “My 2022,” was found to be insecure as it does not protect the user’s sensitive data, and a flaw in its encryption system allows middle-men to access the audio, documents and files in clear text form.
The researchers also discovered that the app collects a large amount of sensitive data, including real-time location, audio info, list of installed apps, WLAN status, COVID-19 vaccination status, location access, demographic data, daily health status, complete passport info and details of the organisation the user works.
The FBI has urged all athletes to keep their cell phones at home and use a temporary phone while at the games.
“The National Olympic Committees in some Western countries are also advising their athletes to leave personal devices at home or use temporary phones due to cybersecurity concerns at the Games."
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