UK accuses Russia of cyberattacks on Tokyo 2020 Olympics

The UK has accused Russia of carrying out a series of cyberattacks on the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo -- scheduled to take place in Tokyo in July, 2020 but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Britain also warned that the postponed Games due to take place next year may also be targetted by Russia.

UK and allied intelligence services discovered that the Russian military intelligence service, GRU, attempted to disguise itself as Chinese and North Korean hackers in “false-flag” operations to disrupt the Games.

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The statement by UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also accused the Russian body of targeting the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in South Korea with cyberattacks -- using the malware “Olympic Destroyer”.

The attacks started, according to security officials, in September last year, days before the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) threatened to ban Russian athletes from the Olympics and other major international sporting events.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre has assessed the attacks and believes they were intended to sabotage the games, as the malware used "was designed to wipe data from and disable computers and networks."

The UK statement comes after major charges were announced in the US on Monday.

Six Russian military intelligence officers have been charged with carrying out cyberattacks on Ukraine's power grid, the 2017 French elections and the 2018 Winter Olympics, the US Justice Department announced on Monday.

To this end, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said that Tokyo was in close cooperation with the US and UK on this issue and would not "overlook malicious cyber attacks that could shake the foundations of democracy."