The Ministry of Sports confirmed the hacking of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s X.com account on Friday May 10, 2024. If the official account of the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games of France was restored the next day, a investigation is underway into this incident two months before the 2024 Olympics.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, was the victim of a hack of her X.com account on Friday May 10, 2024. Her profile underwent suspicious modifications such as a change of photo as well as publications strange, a sign of a proper hacking. The hacker even sent phishing messages containing malicious links, notably to the entrepreneur Guillermo Rauch, who appears to have no specific link either with the hacker or with the minister.
Alerted, the National Information Systems Security Agency (ANSSI) quickly intervened to block the activity of the hacked account and restore access to it. Restored the next day, the account was subject to additional security measures, according to the ministry which opened an investigation to elucidate the circumstances of this worrying cyberattack two months before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The minister’s X.com account hacked and restored in 24 hours, ANSSI alerted and an investigation opened
In 24 hours, the minister’s X.com account, followed by more than 120,000 subscribers, underwent a series of suspicious modifications. It was first of all a change in the profile photo as well as mysterious publications which were noticed by the minister’s teams. Our colleagues on the site Numerama publish the tweet of the deputy editor-in-chief of the site Challengeswho managed to capture an image of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s hacked account.
But the hacker didn’t stop there. He managed to hijack the account by sending phishing messages to certain contacts like Guillermo Rauch, an entrepreneur specializing in cloud computing. The latter received malicious links on his X.com email from the minister’s hacked account, with the obvious aim of hacking it in turn.
Faced with this worrying situation, the Ministry of Sports reacted quickly by contacting the National Agency for Information Systems Security (ANSSI). The relevant services immediately intervened to block the activity of the hacked account. X.com also took matters into its own hands and restored access to the minister and her team the next day around noon. In order to avoid further piracy, “ additional measures » were taken to strengthen account security, according to the ministry.
Although the damage was contained, the exact origin of this computer hacking still remains unknown. Several avenues are being considered, such as a simple phishing which would have allowed hackers to recover account access credentials. Or a security breach on the poorly protected account which would have facilitated the intrusion of cybercriminals. An investigation was opened to shed light on this incident two months before the start of the Paris Olympic Games.
Alerts are increasing on cyber threats targeting the Paris 2024 Olympics
This hacking of the Minister of Sports’ X.com account comes as the authorities have increased warnings about the high risks of cyberattacks during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris which will open on July 26.
ANSSI had already sounded the alarm in February 2024 about the massive IT threat that will weigh on this major global event. In a note published in October 2022, the public service responsible for cybersecurity in France warned against “ the significant cyber risks faced by the 2024 Olympics “.
In addition to the potential financial and operational damage, ANSSI fears above all the consequences regarding the image and reputation for an event of such media magnitude, broadcast throughout the world. However, according to Vincent Strube, the director of the agency, “ we are not going to prevent all attacks from happening “. A rather fatalistic approach, but realistic.
Sources: Numerama, ANSSI
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