Italian authorities successfully defended against a series of cyberattacks targeting the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in the days leading up to the Games, raising concerns about potential ongoing threats from state-sponsored actors.
The attacks, which began last week, took the form of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks aimed at websites associated with the Olympics, as well as hotels in Cortina d’Ampezzo and Italian national embassies. Even as DDoS attacks do not result in data breaches, they can disrupt operations and cause significant financial losses by overwhelming systems with traffic.
The Milan-Cortina Games are taking place against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical tension, particularly following Russia’s exclusion from major international sporting events, including the Olympics, due to the invasion of Ukraine. Previous Olympic Games, notably the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, were targeted by Russian-backed actors in retaliation for a ban on Russian athletes stemming from a state-sponsored doping program.
Experts warn that Russia’s absence from medal competition at the 2026 Games could alter the calculus for potential cyberattacks. “With no national team participating, traditional deterrents tied to reputational or competitive consequences are reduced,” said Justin Moore, a senior manager at Unit 42, a division of Palo Alto Networks. “Given the history of Russian-linked cyber activity targeting past Olympic Games, the risk of state-aligned cyber operations cannot be discounted, potentially drawing on previously observed disruptive or influence-based tactics.”
In response to the threat, the Italian National Cyber Security Agency (ACN) has deployed 20 dedicated officials to oversee cybersecurity for the Games. They are receiving support from other nations with recent or upcoming Olympic experience, including France and the United States, to identify and mitigate malicious activity.
Technology partners are also playing a critical role in securing the Games. Deloitte, the lead integrator, and HPE, the official network equipment hardware partner, are responsible for designing and managing the key infrastructure underpinning the event. HPE’s network connects over 40 competition and non-competition venues, supporting more than 3,000 athletes, 11,000 media and broadcast staff, and thousands of volunteers.
The network supports over one million connections, providing essential services such as Wi-Fi, ticketing, broadcast connections, venue management, and scoring systems. Giuseppe Civale, director of ICT infrastructure and venue technologies for Milan-Cortina 2026, emphasized the need for “the highest grade of performance and stability” to deliver high-resolution 8K footage to over 200 rights holders broadcasting the Games worldwide.
The geographically dispersed nature of the Milan-Cortina Games – venues are spread across 22,000 square kilometers of Northern Italy – presents a unique security challenge. HPE is utilizing software-defined networking and artificial intelligence to embed security directly into the network design, automating threat detection and response. Zero trust access controls, which assume all devices are potentially insecure, are also being implemented.
“For the event organisers, not having an embarrassing incident where an attacker succeeds is very important,” explained Rami Rahim, general manager of HPE’s networking business. “But just as important is not degrading the experience of the network because you have firewalls everywhere. To achieve that you have to build a network where security is built in, where the network itself acts as a sensor to identify threats, implement policies, to block and prevent.”
The International Olympic Committee has not commented on the specific cyberattacks or the potential for future disruptions, but continues to monitor the situation closely.