Whether it's international sporting competitions, political summits or major trade shows, big events put businesses in the spotlight. While this visibility is an opportunity, it is also a magnet for cybercriminals.
Lessons learned from past major events, such as the Paris 2024 Olympics, show that the threat is not just theoretical: it is massive and takes many forms. Here's how to turn these lessons into a lasting defense strategy for your organization.
Why does the cyber threat surge during major events?
When an event attracts media attention, businesses in its ecosystem (service providers, partners, local authorities) become priority targets for three main reasons:
Attacker opportunism: The volume of communications (emails, newsletters, bookings) increases, providing perfect cover for massive phishing campaigns.
Time pressure: The urgency surrounding the event sometimes pushes teams to bypass usual security procedures to ensure service continuity.
Activism and visibility: For some hacker groups, crippling an infrastructure at a key moment is a symbolic trophy far more powerful than financial gain.
Specific risks to watch for
Analyzing past crises makes it possible to identify recurring attack vectors that every CIO and security manager must prepare for:
Denial-of-service attacks(DDoS): The goal is to overload your servers to make your services unavailable at the worst possible moment.
Social engineering and phishing: Fraudulent emails impersonating official partners to steal credentials or install ransomware.
Vulnerabilities related to Wi-Fi and mobility: Employees on the move often use less secure public networks, making it easier to intercept sensitive data.
Lessons learned: what the 2024 Olympics taught us
The 2024 Olympic Games served as a full-scale laboratory. With more than 4 billion potential cyberattacks anticipated and hundreds of incidents blocked every day, the event proved that cyber resilience does not rely solely on perimeter protection (firewalls, antivirus), but on the ability to respond and restore.
The lesson is clear: the question is no longer whether you will be targeted, but how you will restore your data if the first line of defense gives way.
Survival guide: securing your infrastructure during peak periods
To maintain a high level of security during a high-visibility event, four pillars are essential:
Preventive audit and hardening: Before the event begins, carry out a complete review of security patches and restrict access to critical data (principle of least privilege).
Active monitoring and logs: Step up the monitoring of your systems to detect the weak signals of an intrusion before it becomes critical.
Strong authentication (MFA): Make credential theft harmless by enforcing two-factor authentication on all remote access.
Isolate backups: Make sure your backup copies are stored outside the main network so that ransomware cannot encrypt them at the same time.
The role of Kiwi Backup in your cyber resilience
In the face of sophisticated threats, offsite backup remains the last line of defense. At Kiwi Backup, we support professionals to ensure that no attack, however intense, can cripple a business for long.
With our 100% French infrastructure and our ISO 27001 and HDS certifications, we offer a backup solution sealed off from cyber threats, enabling fast restoration of your digital assets with full integrity, even during a major crisis.
Conclusion: turn vulnerability into strength
Major events are stress tests for your IT. By learning from past experience and automating your protection with sovereign solutions, you protect not only your data, but also your company's reputation and long-term future.