British cybersecurity agents disrupted
a plot by Russian military intelligence
to hack the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the
Foreign Office said yesterday.
Russian agents posed as North
Korean and Chinese cybercriminals in
an attempted revenge attack for the
doping investigation of the Russian
Olympic team, it was claimed.
According to Britain, the GRU, a
Russian military intelligence unit, also
targeted the opening ceremony of the
2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang,
South Korea. It crashed the website so
that spectators could not print out
tickets and brought down the stadium
wifi.
The agents also tried to insert mali-
cious software that would have wiped
Olympic computers of their data,
potentially paralysing the competition.
However, their attempt to disrupt the
broadcasting of the opening ceremonyfailed after they were detected by
British experts at the National Cyber
Security Centre (NCSC).
The plot to disrupt the 2020 Games,
which were eventually postponed
because of the coronavirus pandemic,
was also disrupted by Britain, the
Foreign Office said.
In a co-ordinated announcement,
the United States announced criminal
charges against six GRU agents for
their part in that operation and others
targeting Ukraine’s power grid and theCatherine Philp
Diplomatic Correspondent
The opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea was also said to have been targeted by agents from the GRU, the Russian military intelligence unit
UK thwarted Russian
plot to disrupt Olympics
2017 French elections. They were also
charged over the 2017 NotPetya ran-
somware attack that crippled systems
worldwide, costing $10 billion, and for
hacking that targeted the investigation
into the poisoning of the former
Russian double agent Sergei Skripal
and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury.
The hackers were alleged to have
targeted the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in
the Netherlands and the Defence
Continued on page 2, col 3British cybersecurity experts stopped hacking attack on 2020 Games
MATTHIAS HANGST/GETTY IMAGESOne-hour
Covid test at
airports set to
reopen travel
Graeme Paton Transport Correspondent
Passengers will undergo a one-hour
coronavirus test before flying out of
Britain under plans to open up
international air travel.
Rapid tests will be introduced from
today at Heathrow to allow travellers to
enter countries where a negative
Covid-19 result is required to avoid
being quarantined.
The system will initially be available
for those going to Hong Kong and Italy,
which permit quick pre-flight tests as
evidence that passengers are free of the
virus. They will be required to book a
test in advance at a cost of £80.
Grant Shapps, the transport secre-
tary, said yesterday that the govern-
ment was also in talks with the United
States over a trial of pre-departure tests
between the two countries.
He said that passengers on the route
might be able to avoid quarantine
altogether when they arrived in Britain
by isolating before they flew or sitting a
test in the US. It was hoped that it would
form the basis of a worldwide travel
standard, he said.
Aviation has been devastated by the
pandemic, with passenger numbers
collapsing by as much as 90 per cent. It
has been exacerbated by tough border
rules imposed by countries to control
the virus.
In Britain anyone arriving from
about 150 high-risk countries is
required to quarantine for two weeks.
Only a small number of quarantine-
free “travel corridors” exist between the
UK and “safe” countries.
Last month the government set up a
task force to examine how to open up
the country to international travel. Mr
Shapps said that ministers had agreed a
regime in which arrivals would self-
isolate for a week before paying for a
single coronavirus test carried out by a
private company, halving the fortnight-
long quarantine for those with a nega-
tive result. It is hoped that this will be in
place by December but airlines are
pushing for pre-flight tests as a long-
term solution.
Coronavirus latest, pages 8-Tuesday October 20 2020 | thetimes.co.uk | No 73295 2G
Millennials in democracies throughout
the world are more disillusioned with
their system of government than any
young generation in living memory, a
study has found.
A survey of nearly five million people
showed that those in their 20s and 30s,
born between 1981 and 1996, had less
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(based on 7 Day Print Pack)Millennials all over the world have lost faith in democracy
Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent faith in democratic institutions than
their parents or grandparents did at the
same stage of life.
The collapse of confidence is particu-
larly pronounced in the “Anglo-Saxon
democracies” of Britain, the United
States and Australia. However, similar
trends are seen in Latin America, sub-
Saharan Africa and southern Europe.
“This is the first generation in living
memory to have a global majority who
are dissatisfied with the way democracy
works while in their twenties and
thirties,” Roberto Foa, lead author of
the study from the Centre for the
Future of Democracy at Cambridge
University, said.
Of the 2.3 billion people in countries
covered by the report, 1.6 billion, or
seven out of ten, are in nations withdeclining democratic satisfaction from
one generation to the next. This did not
mean that voters would support auto-
cratic alternatives, Dr Foa said. Rather,
they were frustrated that their systems
were not working for them.
The report shows a slump among
young Britons, fuelled largely by
inequality. In 1973, 54 per cent of British
30-year-olds reported being satisfiedwith democracy and 57 per cent of baby
boomers expressed the same sentiment
when they turned 30 a decade later.
For members of Generation X, born
between 1965 and 1980, satisfaction
reached a high of 62 per cent during the
1990s and 2000s. For millennials, it has
sunk to 48 per cent.
Inequalities in wealth and income,
Continued on page 2, col 3