The Paris Olympics’ organising committee said on Friday the impact of a global cyber outage on its operations was limited and ticket sales were unaffected however accreditation and uniform deliveries have been affected one week ahead of the Games.
The global tech outage that appeared to be related to issues at global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and Microsoft was affecting operations in many sectors on Friday including airports, airlines, media and banks.
“We have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations,” the organising committee said in a statement.
“At this point, the impacts are limited and concern in particular the delivery of uniforms and accreditations.
“Paris 2024’s ticketing systems have been unaffected. The operations around the preparation of venues is continuing normally, and work schedules are not at risk. The torch relay is continuing along its route as normal.”
At the Games’ press centre, security checks outside were done manually using lists of names, and the accreditation desk was closed, a Reuters reporter said.
“I’ve arrived in Paris this morning and went to get my accredidation validated and have been told no,” Sky Sports New Zealand journalist Wilson Catton said. “They can’t issue any accreditation or anything for I don’t know how long.”
Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris Olympics Organising Committee, told reporters that contingeny plans were put in place but the outage was slowing operations, and the committee was “hoping that Microsoft can solve the outage very quickly.”