French cybercrimes team called in after Israeli athletes’ data leaked online
In latest threat to Israel’s Olympic delegation, information including blood test results and login credentials posted online late last week by hacking group calling itself ‘Zeus’
France’s cybercrime unit (OFAC) is pushing to get private data on several Israeli athletes competing in the Paris Olympic Games removed from social media, police sources said Saturday.
Data including blood test results and login credentials were published on Telegram on Friday in an apparent doxing cyberattack, the sources said. Doxing is the malicious publication of private details online.
The hacker group, which called itself “Zeus,” also leaked personal information revealing Israeli athletes’ military status on social media Thursday.
The doxing activity was reported to Pharos, which is part of France’s Anti-Cybercrime Office (OFAC).
That led OFAC to start action to get the relevant platforms to remove the data, said a source close to the case.
Israel on Thursday warned France of potential threats from Iran-backed groups against Israeli athletes and tourists during the Paris Olympic Games.
“There are those who seek to harm the festivities of this joyous event,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told his French counterpart in a letter, copies of which were released to the media.
“We currently have assessments of potential threats from Iranian terror affiliates and other terrorist organizations aiming to carry out terror attacks against members of the Israeli delegation and Israeli tourists during the Olympics.”
France has mounted a vast security operation to ensure the Olympics — which began Friday and end on August 11 — are safe.
Around 18,000 French troops have been deployed to secure the Games in addition to regular police, and the Israeli delegation’s 88 athletes have been assigned security details comprising of both French officers and Israeli Shin Bet agents.
in a statement Thursday, the Israeli embassy accused Iran of being behind a cyber campaign to send social media threats to intimidate the Israeli delegation.
Both the Israeli and Palestinian delegations at the Olympic Games have been given extra protection amid tensions over the ongoing war in Gaza, which began on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
On Friday, the French police said they were investigating a person threatened on social media to attack President Isaac Herzog.
The threat was posted to X, formerly Twitter, from the Val-de-Marne region southeast of Paris, and was being investigated by the anti-terrorism unit of the regional police, according to French outlet L’Equipe.
