Athletes were encouraged not to use their own cell phones for fear of being hacked by Beijing

Do not pick up your phone … A few weeks before the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Western athletes were called upon to be vigilant in the face of the dangers of hacking on Chinese soil. Threatened by Govt-19 and diplomatically ignored by many countries, it is now suspected to be a playground for computer hackers: the Beijing Olympics, scheduled for February 4 to 20, are a chain of controversy.

On Tuesday, the Canadian research laboratory Citizen Lab, an expert on cybersecurity issues, announced that it had identified several vulnerabilities in the application used by the tens of thousands of participants expected in the games. This processor, My 2022, which we also had to download before leaving for Beijing at the end of the month, is specifically used to check the health of participants in a bubble placed by Beijing to prevent it from spreading. Govt-19 to other parts of the country. Athletes but support staff, senior executives and journalists are concerned.

CIO denies Citizen Laboratory version

According to Citizen Lab, hackers can access users’ personal information due to a lack of data protection. “China is known for undermining cryptographic technologies to implement political censorship and surveillance,” said study author Jeffrey Knuckle. Therefore, it is reasonable to wonder if the data encryption of this application was not intentionally corrupted for monitoring purposes. ⁇

In response, the Games Organizing Committee told the AFP that these concerns were “not based on any evidence” and that the information in My 2022 would only be used for the Olympics. For its part, the two special cyber security agencies requested by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) checked the application and pointed out that no “significant vulnerabilities” were found.

Expensive phones for some delegates

But these guarantees did not convince Olympic committees in Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, which advised their athletes to leave their regular phones and computers at home and not just pick up equipment they spend in Beijing. “We remind all members of the Canadian team that the Olympic Games offer a unique opportunity for cybercrime,” the Canadian committee said, urging its athletes to be more vigilant.

The media reported last week that similar advice had been issued in both Belgium and the Netherlands. The UK will provide spare phones for its athletes and Australia has said it will make its own WiFi available. Other countries seem to be less concerned: Italy and Spain have indicated they have not sent specific advice.