A planned cyber-attack spread via fraudulent emails offering free tickets for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been discovered in a probe conducted by Tokyo-based data analysis firm Antuit.
Such emails already appear to have been received by internet users. As an event that attracts worldwide attention, the Olympic Games is an easy target of cyber-attacks and vigilance has been urged for the possibility of similar attacks continuing to appear.
"We will target Japanese and Americans who are interested in sports events." In late August this year, Antuit found such a post on several sites on the dark web, which enables untraceable online activities.
The post included the text of an email scam written in Japanese, containing such phrases as "TOKYO 2020" and "free tickets."
The plan involved sending out a large number of fraudulent emails and text messages offering free tickets, with devices becoming infected with a virus when recipients click links to illicit sites in the messages.
On the websites, those posting messages communicated in Chinese and Russian. One post said, "This is the first of a total of five attacks," suggesting more attacks could follow.
According to Antuit, the posters calling for cyber-attacks claimed in September that they had obtained about 10,000 pieces of information.
It also has been confirmed online that some people did receive such fraudulent emails. There was also a post showing a sample of a new email in Japanese that threatened to carry out a second cyber-attack based on information illicitly obtained through the first attack.
An official of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games said, "At this moment, we're not aware of unauthorized emails offering free tickets."
However, in an effort to prevent scams, the committee has been gathering related information and on its official website raising awareness that ticket sales have not started yet.
"It is speculated that hackers are planning cyber-attacks during the Olympics," Shuhei Igarashi of Antuit said. "Attacks related to the Olympics have already begun. We suspect they will become more intensified in the future."
Past Games also targeted
Such cyber-attacks have also been seen at past Olympic Games. According to Kenji Uesugi, a senior fellow of the Japan Cybersecurity Innovation Committee, a private research institute in Tokyo, the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games were hit by cyber-attacks that took down official websites and other sites by overwhelming their servers with large amounts of data.
At the Pyeongchang Games this February, its official website was also shut down by an attack.
At the Rio Games, a fake ticket sales site was confirmed, while an illicit public wireless LAN service area (Wi-Fi) was also set up to steal private data.
"Cyber-attacks targeting a large number of people will definitely occur at the Tokyo Games," Uesugi said. "Also conceivable is a scenario in which a terrorist attack is launched amid confusion created by a cyber-attack. It is necessary to consider worst-case scenarios."
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