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Russian military intelligence services were planning a cyber attack on the Olympic and Paralympic Games hosted by Japan in Tokyo this summer in an attempt to disrupt the world’s main sporting event, the UK’s National Center for Cyber Security revealed, revealing a joint operation. with US intelligence agencies.
The Russian cyber reconnaissance work covered Games organizers, logistics services and sponsors and was underway before the Olympics were postponed due to the coronavirus.
Many previously attributed Russian cyber attacks have been against the state institutions of Moscow’s political opponents, but some cyber activity has targeted agencies conducting investigations into Russian sports doping.
The new evidence is the first indication that Russia was prepared to go so far as to disrupt the Summer Games, from which all Russian competitors had been excluded due to persistent state-sponsored doping violations.
The UK has also become the first government to confirm details of the extent of a previously reported Russian attempt to disrupt the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. He stated with what he described as 95% confidence that the interruption of the Winter and Summer Olympics was carried out remotely by GRU unit 74455.
In Pyeongchang, according to the UK, the GRU’s cyber unit tried to disguise itself as North Korean and Chinese hackers when it targeted the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Games, blocking the website so that viewers could not print tickets and blocking the wifi in the stadium.
Key targets also included broadcasters, a ski resort, Olympic officials, service providers, and sponsors of the games in 2018, meaning the targets of the attacks weren’t just in Korea.
The GRU also deployed data deletion malware against Winter Games IT systems and specific devices in South Korea using a VPN filter.
The UK assumes that reconnaissance work for the Summer Olympics, including spearphishing to collect key account details, creating fake websites, and investigating the security of individual accounts, was designed to mount the same. form of disruption, making the Games a logistical nightmare for businesses and spectators. and athletes.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “The actions of the GRU against the Olympic and Paralympic Games are cynical and reckless. We condemn them in the strongest possible terms.
“The UK will continue to work with our allies to report and counter future malicious cyber attacks.”
The UK attribution, which is part of an attempt to disrupt Russia’s cybersecurity through maximum exposure and deter any disruption to the rescheduled Summer Games next year, will likely lead to the opening of indictments by EE. British sources said that the scope and persistence of cyber activity against sporting bodies has probably been clarified at the highest echelons of the Russian state.
Russia was excluded in December 2019 from all world sporting events by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), including the Summer Olympics, after the Russian anti-doping agency itself was found guilty of tampering with laboratory data provided to researchers in January 2019..
At the time of Wada’s four-year ban, Russia claimed it was the victim of hysteria.
The 2018 attack on the Winter Olympics predates the ban and underscores how Russia has for many years been trying to intimidate and penetrate agencies seeking to investigate Russian doping, even now going so far as to disrupt the Summer Olympics themselves. .
The International Olympic Committee had declared in late 2017 that Russian athletes could only compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics as neutrals, and not under the Russian flag.
The revelations potentially come at a difficult time for Donald Trump, as the issue of Russian interference in American politics has resurfaced in the presidential election campaign. Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and the New York Post have been accused of unknowingly being used by Russia to spread disinformation about the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter.
The UK claims that cyberattacks are part of a pattern by the Russian state to electronically target countries ranging from Ukraine, the US and Georgia to the UK, including the Foreign Office.
British officials noted that Russia in the UN general assembly had adhered to an Olympic truce, including a pledge not to disrupt or in any way undermine the security of the Games.
The UK said it had already acted against the GRU’s destructive cyber unit by working with international partners to impose asset freezes and travel bans on its members through the EU’s cyber sanctions regime.
