Winter Olympics organisers are investigating whether the opening ceremony was the target of a cyber-attack after severe technological problems struck during the event.



Reporters at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium noticed that the internet wifi stopped working shortly before the ceremony while the televisions and wifi at the main press centre also stopped. Pyeongchang 2018 was also forced to shut its website, with users unable to print their tickets for events.

The website was only normalised at 8am on Saturday, 12 hours later.



Fears over a potential cyber-attack, particularly from North Korea, were prominent in the build-up to the Games. A spokesperson for Pyeongchang 2018 said they “cannot speculate” on the reason behind the problems but did not rule out claims that their servers were deliberately targeted by hackers.

In a statement, the organising committee said the glitches “impacted some of our noncritical systems last night for a few hours” but insisted it had no affect on the ceremony itself.



“These have not disrupted any events, or had any effect on the safety and security of any athletes or spectators,” Pyeongchang 2018 added.



“All competitions are running as planned and the systems are working at the expected level. Our technology partners and our experienced team of ICT experts are working to maintain the systems.



“We are currently investigating the root cause and will share further information as we have more details.”



A spokesperson later added that the problems had affected “several areas” across the Games but they were confident systems would be fully operational as soon as possible. There were also reports of people receiving malicious emails from potential hackers.