A global tech outage that affected operations in many sectors and hit parts of the Paris Olympics operations proved to be a good test ahead of the Games, the International Olympic Committee said Saturday.
A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking.
It also affected some operations of the organizers of the Paris Games.
“There were some significant problems on the morning, but it was pretty well dealt with,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said. “It was quite a good rehearsal.”
“Cyberattacks are part of everyone’s daily lives. The Olympic Games are a huge target obviously,” Adams said. “We have a huge amount of safeguards in place. I would not go into detail even if I could explain it. We have been assured by our people and partners that we are very, very prepared.
“You can never be too prepared. We had a close call in Pyeongchang. We have every confidence we know how to deal with it.”
The Paris Games open July 26. This was not the first time the Olympics were affected by tech failure or attack, with the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics having been a target of cyberattacks.
