By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) – A global tech outage that affected operations in many sectors and also hit parts of the Paris Olympics operations proved to be a good test ahead of the Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Saturday.
A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking.
It also affected some operations of the organisers of the Paris Games.
“Yes there were some significant problems on the morning but it was pretty well dealt with,” said IOC spokesperson Mark Adams. “It was quite a good rehearsal.”
The Paris Games open on July 26. This was not the first time the Olympics were affected by tech failure or attack, with the Pyeongchang 2018 winter Olympics having been a target of cyberattacks.
“Cyberattacks are part of everyone’s daily lives. The Olympic Games are a huge target obviously,” Adams said.
“We have a huge amount of safeguards in place. I would not go into detail even if I could explain it. We have been assured by our people and partners that we are very, very prepared.”
“You can never be too prepared. We had a close call in Pyeonghchang. We have every confidence we know how to deal with it.”
While praising preparation for the Games, Adams said France’s bid for the 2030 winter Games to be voted on in the IOC session next week had been discussed at the IOC executive board on Saturday.
The bid which was picked in June by the IOC executive board as its recommendation to the session next week, has still not provided two key guarantees that are needed for its approval.
One of the guarantees still to be delivered is the public partnership contribution from the two regions. The French bid involves the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur regions.
“Yes this topic was touched on (at the executive board on Saturday,” Adams said.
France 2030 will be part of a two-Games vote by the session that also involves Salt Lake City as hosts of the 2034 winter Games.
“(France 2030) A great proposal. It will be on the agenda on Wednesday (at the session),” he said, but added that political turmoil in France in recent weeks had played a role.
“The difficult political situation makes it a bit more difficult. We still have some working days left to go and I urge you to wait until then.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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