As the world's largest sporting events and conferences have gone increasingly digital, the cybersecurity challenges have grown exponentially. From the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, a wave of disruptive cyberattacks has targeted the infrastructure powering these global spectacles. But what can we learn from the defenders who have successfully fended off these threats?
A Cyber Battlefield Like No Other
When billions of fans tune in, and critical services like ticketing, transportation, and even competition results rely on networked systems, the attack surface is vast. Palo Alto Networks' analysis of the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan highlights the sheer scale of the challenge, with over 3 billion viewers expected worldwide. Ransomware groups, nation-state actors, and hacktivists all see these events as prime targets, whether they're after financial gain, intelligence gathering, or causing public disruption.
What this really means is that the organizers of these mega-events must adopt a battle-hardened, military-grade approach to cybersecurity. As Cisco's Talos Incident Response team has seen firsthand, the reality is far messier than the textbook incident response playbook. Attackers exploit the complexity of hastily assembled digital infrastructure, from ticketing systems to WiFi networks, to gain a foothold and burrow deep into the systems.
Lessons From the Front Lines
The bigger picture here is that the defenders of these global events have developed a unique set of strategies and capabilities that the rest of us can learn from. Some key takeaways include:
- Embracing a "wartime" mindset: Expecting the worst and planning accordingly, with the understanding that attackers will probe every weakness.
- Forging global alliances: Collaborating across national borders and between the public and private sectors to share threat intelligence and coordinate defenses.
- Building resilience from the ground up: Designing systems, networks, and processes with the assumption that breaches will happen, and prioritizing rapid containment and recovery.
- Empowering incident responders: Giving security teams the resources, authority, and autonomy to make decisions and act decisively in the heat of a crisis.
As the Paris Olympics demonstrated, this approach can pay dividends, with officials reporting that nearly 140 cyberattacks were thwarted without any major disruptions. While the tide may not have permanently shifted in favor of the defenders, it's clear that with the right preparation and strategy, even the world's largest cyber events can be safeguarded.
A Blueprint for the Future
The lessons learned from securing global mega-events have broader implications for any organization facing sophisticated, determined adversaries. By adopting a "wartime" mindset, building cross-border alliances, prioritizing resilience, and empowering their incident response teams, defenders can turn the tables on even the most advanced threat actors. As Mike Mestrovich, former CISO of the CIA, puts it: "It just shows that, with enough coordination and with enough luck, you can actually survive through these things."