The Paris Olympics in 2024 but also the Rugby World Cup in the fall of 2023: France is preparing to host major global sporting events. Appointments which will obviously attract a lot of people but which already pose security questions.
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For the Ministry of the Interior, these are sites that are being prepared now. This is, moreover, the leitmotif of Minister Gérald Darmanin’s new mandate, “ensuring security in a very broad sense”assures franceinfo the ministry, in the light of these two major competitions, and in particular the Summer Olympics, for the first time in a century.
The Ministry of the Interior expects between fifteen and sixteen million visitors to France in nine months, on numerous sites, including overseas. The challenge is colossal when it comes to public security and threats, whether terrorist or cyber. “We must modernize and also develop the fight against terrorism“, says a source familiar with the matter.
The development of “intelligent” cameras
The Ministry of the Interior is preparing to step up a gear in terms of artificial intelligence. In particular, he wants to develop so-called “intelligent” video protection, cameras capable of detecting in real time crowd movements, suspicious behavior, vehicles that are driving too fast, thanks to algorithms, however without making it possible to identify a person. On the other hand, no recourse to facial recognition, assures the entourage of Gerald Darmanin: it involves too many risks of infringements of individual freedoms.
However, even on “smart” cameras, the National Commission for Computing and Liberties (Cnil) recalls that “these new video tools can thus lead to massive processing of personal data, sometimes even sensitive data, and entail a risk of generalized surveillance“. It therefore asks the government to regulate this practice by legislative or regulatory texts, which the Ministry of the Interior should do after the legislative elections.
Drones, an intelligence tool but also a threat
The Ministry of the Interior also points to the question of drones as an intelligence tool, for example during demonstrations or wild rodeos. On the other hand, the police forces cannot use it in their investigations for the moment. The Ministry of the Interior hopes to change the legislation.
There is also the issue of drones as a terrorist threat. Flying objects can carry explosives. This is a scenario that the ministry fears. “We must prepare better and carry out an anti-drone policy before the Rugby World Cup and the Olympics“, we confide in the entourage of the minister.
An increase in the “cyber” budget
Finally, the big challenge is also on the side of cyberattacks. Of the fifteen million euros budgeted over five years for the orientation and programming law of the Ministry of the Interior, half is for cyber.
At the ministry, we talk about more than four billion cyberattacks during the Tokyo games, games yet without spectators. “This could be multiplied by 4 for Paris!“, estimates a source…
The ministry therefore wants coding training in police schools as well as four places reserved for polytechnicians in the entrance examination.
Place Beauvau, here too, wants to move up a gear with a single objective: “That the Paris Olympics are not attacked“.