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Organisers of the infamous Eurovision song contest have said that cyber attacks are the most significant concern, in light of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
According to the BBC’s director of unscripted programs, Kate Phillips, with the global cyber climate worsening and the war in Ukraine seeing both sides launch cyber attacks, the concern that Eurovision will be targeted is heightening.
“Cyber attacks are the main worry because they’re becoming more and more frequent,” she said.
“Most companies seem to have been hacked.
“We’re very conscious that we are open to a cyber attack, but everything we’ve done, I think, mitigates that.”
Phillips has said that a plethora of “contingency plans” are in place in case of a cyber attack and that the BBC has prepped as much as it can.
“I don’t want to say we’re pretty attack-proof, but we’ve done everything we can to make sure the event is as secure as possible, so people don’t have to worry about that,” she added.
Ukraine was originally set to host this year’s Eurovision after winning it last year, but it is unable due to the Russian invasion that occurred last year. The UK is now hosting it for the first time in 25 years.
A cyber attack on last year’s Eurovision by pro-Russian hackers was thwarted by Italian police. Law enforcement’s cyber security department said it blocked a number of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyber attacks from the Killnet and Legion hacker groups during the performance and voting stages of the contest.
Killnet responded, saying it was not behind the attack.
“According to foreign media, Killnet attacked Eurovision and they were stopped by the Italian police, so Killnet did not attack Eurovision,” the group said.
Following this, it then declared war on the Italian police and suggested that it had taken down the Polizia Postale (Postal Police) website, the group which is responsible for fighting cyber crime.
The 2019 Eurovision in Tel Aviv, Israel, was also hacked, with the stream showing missile strike warnings and blasts in the host city. Hamas was blamed for the attack.
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