FBI urges athletes participating at 2022 Winter Olympics to keep personal phone at home

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics - Previews - Day -2
Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics - Previews - Day -2

The FBI issued a stern warning to athletes competing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and asked them to leave their personal cellphones at home and use a temporary phone at the event instead.

They have cited 'malicious cyber activities' as the reason for asking the athletes to keep their phones at home. The agency sent in a notice sent to the athletes:

“The FBI urges all athletes to keep their personal cell phones at home and use a temporary phone while at the Games. While there were no major cyber disruptions, the most popular attack methods used were malware, email spoofing, phishing and the use of fake websites and streaming services designed to look like official Olympic service providers.”

According to the agency, the most popular attack methods include malware and email spoofing, among others. Despite the 2021 Tokyo Olympics being staged successfully, over 450 million attempted cyber-related incidents have taken place.

The FBI stated that attempts were made but they were unsuccessful due to cybersecurity measures in place. The notice read:

“These activities include distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, ransomware, malware, social engineering, data theft or leaks, phishing campaigns, disinformation campaigns, or insider threats, and when successful, can block or disrupt the live broadcast of the event, steal or leak sensitive data, or impact public or private digital infrastructure supporting the Olympics."

The FBI urged all athletes to remain vigilant and maintain best practices in their network and digital environments.

"The FBI urges all athletes to keep their personal cell phones at home and use a temporary phone while at the Games."

The FBI said it was not aware of 'any specific threat' against the Olympics but encouraged partners to 'remain vigilant'.

Canadian Olympic Committee also urges athletes to leave their phones at home

The Canadian Olympic Committee has also issued a similar statement, urging athletes to leave their phones at home. A COC spokesperson told ABC News last week:

“The Canadian Olympic Committee works with cybersecurity experts, government agencies, the International Olympic Committee, and other National Olympic Committees to ensure we have appropriate plans for every Games environment we work in."

The spokesperson added:

"Some of our recommendations to Team Canada members include leaving personal devices at home, limiting personal information stored on devices brought to the Games, only connecting to official wifi, turning off transmitting functions when not in use, removing any Games related apps when they’re no longer necessary, and to practice good cyber-hygiene at all times."

Also read: Beijing Winter Olympics: Indian team manager tests positive for Covid-19, to stay in isolation

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Edited by Ritwik Kumar