Paris 2024 Olympics: what should we fear after a computer and USB keys containing sensitive data were stolen from a train ?

La sécurisation des Jeux olympiques de Paris 2024 est-elle compromise ? ILLUSTRATION MAXPPP – HELENE DECAESTECKER

A computer and USB keys containing the Olympic Games security plans for Paris town hall were stolen from a train in Paris, at the Gare du Nord. An investigation has been opened.

A bag containing a computer and two USB keys where the security plans for the Paris Olympic Games were stored by the municipal police was stolen this Monday, February 26 from a train in Paris , reveal our colleagues from BFMTV.

The bag belonged to an engineer from the Paris town hall who was traveling from the Gare du Nord towards Creil, in Oise.

According to the first elements entrusted to the police when filing a complaint, the Marie agent had put his bag in the luggage compartment above his seat. delayed, he decides to change it before noticing his theft.

It is not the municipal agents who have "direct responsibility for security or the opening ceremony or the Olympic Games themselves , they are an auxiliary force but the most sensitive information has not been communicated to them because they do not need to know it", specifies BFM.

2,000 agents deployed

Despite all this theft raises questions: this stolen data allows us to know part of the security plan for the Paris Olympic Games. "There may be information in it sensitive which may allow   someone with malicious intent to go back to a larger system", warns investigative journalist Laurent Valdiguié. 

As a reminder, 2,000 agents, largely municipal police officers, must be deployed during the Olympic Games which will take place from July 26 to August 11.

Regional transport security (SRT) investigators were tasked with the investigations.