Cyberattacks on 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin Reach Over 270,000

The 2025 Asian Winter Games, held in Harbin from February 7 to February 14, faced an alarming wave of cyberattacks totaling 270,167, primarily originating from the United States. A report released indicated a major emphasis was placed on monitoring the Games' information systems and essential infrastructure in Heilongjiang province, revealing both domestic and international attention toward the event.

The pattern of cyberattacks varied significantly throughout the event, with the highest frequency observed between February 7 and February 13, peaking on February 8. The investigation detailed that the majority of the attacks, approximately 63.24 percent or 170,864, were launched from the US, while other contributors included Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany, and South Korea, with notable but smaller attacks from each.

The assaults targeted various components of the event's information systems, particularly focusing on systems responsible for disseminating information, managing entry and exit, and processing card payments. In a bid to mitigate the threat, authorities successfully blocked over 12,000 high-risk IP addresses involved in attempted data breaches and system sabotage, which were largely traced back to foreign DigitalOcean cloud service platforms.

Further scanning revealed significant attacks on Heilongjiang's vital information infrastructure, with figures displaying that the Netherlands led the charge in this regard as well, contributing nearly 38 million cyberattacks, followed by the US and Thailand. In response to these breaches, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson criticized the ongoing cyber threats at prominent global events and called for greater accountability from the perpetrators. He emphasized that China remains one of the prime targets for these types of international cyber attacks and highlighted the urgency of maintaining cybersecurity measures.