Milan-Cortina 2026: How Winter Olympics embraced AI to fend off cyber attacks

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Organisers of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics are confident in their ability to prevent and manage potential cybersecurity threats after several Russian-linked attacks were thwarted in the opening days of the Games.
Major sporting events of all sizes are popular targets for criminals, activists and state-supported actors seeking to steal data, commit fraud or cause disruption. However, the relative high-profile and geopolitical elements of the Olympic Games mean they are especially vulnerable.
Italian authorities were able to mitigate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on websites linked to the Games, as well as those relating to hotels in Cortina d’Ampezzo and national embassies, last week.
DDoS attacks do not infiltrate systems or steal data but instead flood targets with overwhelming levels of traffic that render them inaccessible, causing operational havoc and financial losses. A full-scale attack or data breach could be even more calamitous.

Previous Olympic Games have been targeted by Russian-backed actors. The first was in retaliation to a ban on its athletes competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics due to a state-sponsored doping programme and, more recently, the country’s exclusion from the Games as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.
Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has raised the prospect of sporting sanctions being lifted in the near future, many within the cybersecurity community believe the risk of further attacks is high.
“Russia’s exclusion from medal competition at the 2026 Winter Games changes the strategic context surrounding Milan Cortina,” said Justin Moore, a senior manager at Unit 42, a division of Palo Alto Networks. “With no national team participating, traditional deterrents tied to reputational or competitive consequences are reduced.
“Given the history of Russian-linked cyber activity targeting past Olympic Games, the risk of state-aligned cyber operations cannot be discounted, potentially drawing on previously observed disruptive or influence-based tactics.”
To combat this threat, the Italian National Cyber Security Agency (ACN) in Rome has 20 dedicated officials working on the Olympics, while other countries, such as France and the US (hosts of the last and next Games), are helping to identify and prevent potentially malicious activity
Meanwhile, Milan-Cortina 2026’s technology partners, such as lead integrator Deloitte and official network equipment hardware partner HPE will play a crucial role in designing and managing key infrastructure that both supports and protects the Games.

The Milan-Cortina 2026 network underpins virtually every activity at the Games (Image credit: Getty Images)

HPE’s network connects more than 40 competition and non-competition venues, supporting over 3,000 athletes, more than 11,000 media and broadcast staff, as well as thousands of volunteers and operations team members.
It provides the foundation for mission-critical infrastructure and applications, including Wi-Fi connectivity, ticketing and retail systems, broadcast connections, venue management systems, and scoring and operational software.
In total, the network supports more than one million connections. Without it, there is effectively no Winter Olympics.
“The Games are built on unrepeatable athletic moments that occur live in the venue, and broadcast remotely to the world,” said Giuseppe Civale, director of ICT infrastructure and venue technologies for Milan-Cortina 2026, ahead of the Games.
“Our network needs the highest grade of performance and stability – from the data centre down to each access point.
“We’re serving an unprecedented amount of high‑resolution 8K footage to more than 200 rights holders that will eventually broadcast the Games to the world. Trust has to be inherent along with scalability and security.”
Ensuring this degree of functionality and security is a challenge exacerbated by scale. Milan-Cortina 2026 is the most geographically dispersed Games in Olympic history, with venues spread out across 22,000 square kilometres of Northern Italy.
HPE says the evolving threat landscape, the scale of the operation and the increasing demands of users mean it would be impossible to secure the network using legacy hardware. Its modern software-defined networking equipment allows HPE to embed security into the design of the network itself, automating key processes.
Zero trust access controls assume any device is insecure until proven otherwise and integrated artificial intelligence (AI) means the network itself acts as a sensor capable of identifying threats and proactively enacting policies. This layered, intelligent approach means the Milan-Cortina 2026 team can block threats in a more rapid, targeted fashion that doesn’t limit capability or shut down the entire network.
“For the event organisers, not having an embarrassing incident where an attacker succeeds is very important,” explained Rami Rahim, general manager of HPE’s networking business, who was speaking at a press event in Milan detailing the network operation.
“But just as important is not degrading the experience of the network because you have firewalls everywhere. To achieve that you have to build a network where security is built in, where the network itself acts as a sensor to identify threats, implement policies, to block and prevent.”

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