According to Sputnik, the FBI has advised US athletes to leave their personal cell phones at home and use burner phones at the upcoming 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, a clear warning of probable harmful cyber activity during the Games. The FBI has advised US Olympic competitors to leave their personal cell phones at home and use burner phones at the upcoming 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
,aspect=fill)
The FBI advises all athletes to leave their personal cell phones at home and utilize a temporary phone while at the competitions, according to the CISA. The FBI cautioned that malicious cyber actors might utilise a wide range of cyber operations to disrupt the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The CISA claimed in a statement that “these operations include distributed denial-of-service attacks, ransomware, malware, social engineering, data theft or leaks, phishing campaigns, disinformation efforts, and insider threats.”
It comes as human rights campaigners claimed that Beijing is silencing critics at home ahead of the Winter Olympics, employing arbitrary methods like as not allowing activists to leave their homes or imprisoning them before the Games. During the Beijing Winter Olympics, the move aims to prevent any protests, criticism, or condemnation of China related to human rights breaches or other issues.
The warning comes as some Western countries have accused China of committing “egregious” human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. After accusing China of widespread incarceration, torture, forced labor, and genocide in Xinjiang, the US imposed diplomatic sanctions.
Other countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada, have stated that they will not send government personnel to the Games after the United States announced a diplomatic boycott. Human rights advocates have also claimed that Beijing is silencing critics at home ahead of the Winter Olympics, using arbitrary methods like as refusing to allow activists leave their homes and placing them in jail.
During the Beijing Winter Olympics, the move aims to prevent any protests, criticism, or condemnation of China related to human rights breaches or other issues. Aside from the Xinjiang issue, China’s current coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the safety of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai were also hot topics.
At the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur in July 2015, Beijing was chosen as the host city. The 2022 Winter Olympics will be the first in China and the third consecutive Winter Olympics in East Asia (after the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan). Beijing will be the first city to hold both the Summer and Winter Olympics as its second Olympic Games: four existing indoor venues built for the 2008 Summer Olympics will be utilized for these Games, while the Beijing National Stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies once more.
