Don't take your phone… A few weeks before the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Western athletes are called upon to be vigilant in the face of the risk of hacking on Chinese soil.

Threatened by the Covid-19, diplomatically boycotted by several countries and now suspected of serving as a playground for computer hackers… The Beijing Olympics, from February 4 to 20, are a source of controversy.

On Tuesday, the Canadian research laboratory Citizen Lab, a specialist in cybersecurity issues, announced that it had identified several flaws in the application to be used by the tens of thousands of participants expected at the Games.

This app, MY2022, which we also had to download before leaving for Beijing at the end of the month, is used in particular to check the health status of participants who will remain in the bubble put in place by Beijing to prevent the transmission of Covid-19. to the rest of the country.

Athletes but also support staff, senior officials and journalists are concerned.

The CIO denies the version of Citizen Lab

For Citizen Lab, the lack of data protection means hackers can potentially gain access to users' personal information.

"China is notorious for undermining encryption technologies in order to practice political censorship and surveillance," said study author Jeffrey Knockel.

Therefore, it is reasonable to wonder if the data encryption of this application has not been deliberately sabotaged for surveillance purposes.

In response, the organizing committee of the Games told AFP that these concerns "were not based on any evidence" and that the information contained in MY2022 would only be used for the Olympic Games.

For its part, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) indicated that two specialized cybersecurity bodies, requested by it, had tested the application and had not detected any "critical vulnerability".

Disposable phones for some delegations

But these assurances did little to convince the Olympic committees in Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, which advised their athletes to leave their usual telephones and computers at home and not to take Beijing only disposable devices. “We reminded all members of Team Canada that the Olympic Games present a unique opportunity for cybercrime,” said the Canadian committee, adding that it had invited its athletes to be extremely vigilant.

In both Belgium and the Netherlands, media reported last week that similar advice had been given.

The UK will provide spare phones to its athletes who request them and Australia has said it will make its own Wi-Fi available.

Other countries seem less worried: Italy and Spain have indicated that they have not sent specific advice.

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