Russian hackers targeted this year’s GRU military intelligence carried out “cyber reconnaissance” against officials and organisations involved.
The alleged attacks took place before the Games were postponed until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials did not, however, specify the nature or extent of the cyber-attacks in detail.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice announced charges against six Russian GRU officers for alleged cyber-attacks serving “the strategic benefit of Russia”.
The group sought to disrupt the 2018 Winter Olympics, the 2017 French presidential election, and Ukraine’s power grid, said US prosecutors.
“No country has weaponised its cyber capabilities as maliciously or irresponsibly as Russia,” assistant attorney general John Demers told a press conference, calling it “the most disruptive and destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group”.
The UK and US have been trying to increase the pressure on Russian hackers for a number of years by publicly exposing their activity, and they will be hoping that news of Moscow targeting an event like the Olympics will draw wider support from other countries.
