Tokyo (AFP)

The organizers of the Tokyo-2020 Olympic Games said on Tuesday to "constantly" monitor the risk of cyber attacks, while London accused Russia of having carried out reconnaissance missions on the internet against targets linked to the Olympics, postponed to 2021.

"We are constantly monitoring (the threat, Editor's note) for different types of cyber attacks on digital platforms belonging to Tokyo-2020, without having observed any significant impact on our operations," according to a statement from the organizers sent to AFP.

The organizers will "continue to work closely" with the agencies and authorities concerned so that the measures planned against possible cyberattacks are well implemented, they added.

According to the head of British diplomacy Dominic Raab, the Russian military intelligence services carried out reconnaissance missions on the internet against targets linked to the Tokyo Olympics, postponed to the summer of 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the British daily The Guardian, these recognition tests would have included phishing actions, consisting of fake emails from relatives or collaborators, in an attempt to recover confidential data.

The Guardian also mentioned fake websites and searches to access secure individual accounts.

The London accusations come as American justice revealed Monday it had indicted six Russian agents suspected of orchestrating global cyberattacks.

These agents would have carried out attacks in France before the 2017 presidential election, mainly targeting Emmanuel Macron's campaign, as well as during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, which Russia did not have was able to participate due to doping charges.

They are also suspected by US authorities of leading the global attack on NotPetya malware in 2017.

The Japanese government did not comment directly on the threats of cyberattacks on the Tokyo Olympics reported by London on Tuesday.

The opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea was marked by untimely cuts to the network at several event sites.

"The internet connection had been lost just after the ceremony (...) and we had to mobilize experts all night to recover it. Until now, I did not know who had done this," said Tuesday to the 'AFP Lee Hee-beom, the former boss of the Pyeongchang-2018 organizing committee.

According to US authorities, Russian hackers attempted to blame North Korea at the time.

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