Winter Olympics 2018: Pyeongchang's opening ceremony hit with cyber attack, organisers say

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A cyber attack was launched on Pyeongchang's servers during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, the organisers said.

It reportedly caused a malfunction of the international protocol televisions located at the press centre.

The Pyeongchang Organising Committee was apparently forced to shut down its servers to avoid any further damage. That in turn lead to the official Pyeongchang 2018 website going down.

Users were unable to access the site for 12 hours and could not print off their tickets for events, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

It is unclear who was behind the attack but cyber security experts have warned that the Winter Olympics provide a “security challenge” as hackers could target athletes and staff.

"The Winter Olympics present a significant security challenge with regards to preventing attacks against the physical, social and technical stacks that are important to the Olympics," Thomas Richards, an associate principal consultant at Synopsis, a leading technology company told The Sun.

Mr Richards added this could “create opportunities” for hackers to “impersonate authorised personnel by dressing or acting the same, and attempting to enter restricted areas."

The opening ceremony attended by several heads of state who witnessed the joint march of North and South Korean athletes.

It was attended by North Korean ceremonial leader Kim Yong Nam and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong.