UK says Russian hackers were preparing cyberattacks on Tokyo Olympics

The British government released a statement, according to which the Russian hack group Sandworm was preparing cyberattacks against the organizers of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. These games were supposed to take place in Japan in the summer of 2020, but were postponed to next year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

According to the National Cyber Security Center of Great Britain (NCSC), the Russian side conducted relevant intelligence operations, and a separate press release from the British government says that the organizers of the Olympics, its logistics services and sponsors were among the targets of the hackers.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ, assesses with high confidence that these attacks were carried out by the GRU’s Main Centre for Specialist Technologies (GTsST), also known as Sandworm and VoodooBear.

“The actions of the GRU against the Olympic and Paralympic Games were cynical and reckless. We condemn this in the strongest possible terms”, — said British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

The UK authorities believe Russian hackers intended to sabotage the Tokyo Olympics with cyberattacks similar to those launched against the organizers of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Let me remind you that those attacks were associated with the suspension of Russian athletes from participating in the Olympics, and later this ban by the IOC was extended to the Olympic Games in Tokyo: Russian athletes were again banned from competing under the Russian flag. And now UK officials say Russia has been preparing similar cyberattacks to sabotage the Olympics again.

The UK government statement coincided with the release of the US Department of Justice statement. Let me remind you that this week the American authorities indicted six GRU officers, saying that these people are part of the Sandworm group and are responsible for the NotPetya, KillDisk and Olympic Destroyer malware attacks.

“We condemn these attacks carried out by the GRU and fully support the criminal charges announced today by the US Department of Justice. These attacks have had very real consequences around the world – both to national economies and the everyday lives of people. We will continue to work with our allies to ensure that we are the hardest possible target for those that seek to cause disruption and harm in cyberspace”, — said Paul Chichester, the NCSC’s Director of Operations.

Let me remind you about the fact that FBI and NSA discovered Drovorub malware.