Japan’s Government is to increase the number of exercises it holds in the battle against cyber attacks in the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Drills aimed at countering hackers are usually held six-times a year but this will be increased to ten, according to the Japan Times.
Exercises could involve simulated attacks on the ticket system of a mock official website, and will be expanded to include local Governments who it is believed may lack experience in this area.
Those taking part will learn to discover the source of cyber-attacks and how to prevent situations from worsening, as well as how to correctly report what is happening.
The news comes after Tokyo 2020’s official website was targeted by hackers in November, causing it to crash for several hours.
An attempt was made to overwhelm the site with traffic, a situation Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee director general Toshiro Muto described as an “extremely serious issue”.
In July, Japan announced that it was training 50,000 people in the public and private sectors on cyber-security.
A conference on cyber-security was also held in Okinawa Prefecture, while the Government announced the creation of a new body to tackle the issue.
Cyber-crime is a challenge for any Olympic host, with ticketing systems, the transport network and hotel bookings potential targets.
By Dan Palmer
This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, www.insidethegames.biz