Security hurdle at winter Olympics

Global IT services company and Olympics technology partner Atos Origin has identified IT systems security as a paramount area of focus at next year`s winter Olympic games to be hosted in Torino, Italy.

The firm outlined this focus at a media tour of the Olympics site last week.

This decision comes on the back of 16 days of competition in Athens last year during which more than 5 million IT security alerts were recorded, of which 425 were serious and 20 were critical.

The types of intrusions included accredited people attempting to disconnect INFO2004 (the Olympic Games intranet that provides results, schedule and athlete information), in order to connect personal laptops to access the Internet. The IT team was able to quickly respond to all the critical alerts and prevent unauthorised access.

In addition to IT areas, Atos will also focus on risk management and operations, to ensure everything is in place to respond to any potential threat from either inside or outside the network, says Yan Noblot, IT security manager, Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games.

"Security is built into the infrastructure from the outset. The first measure we are taking is to keep the games network completely separate from the Internet. Secondly, all IT systems are equipped with the standard range of security systems from anti-virus software to firewalls, intrusion detection systems, port security and other administration tools," he commented.

Atos is working in conjunction with the Torino Organising Committee of the XX Olympic Winter Games Torino 2006, a private, non-profit-making foundation responsible for organising the Torino 2006 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

In the run-up to the event next year, the company is undertaking extensive testing so as to enable the IT security team to understand what is normal activity on applications, servers, PCs and the network, so that an incident can be logged when the traffic becomes abnormal.

"This strategy enables the IT security team to effectively respond to incidents on a prioritised basis and keep the games` IT infrastructure protected from a wide range of cyber threats that may otherwise compromise critical IT services, including the recording and distribution of competition results," Noblot comments.

Meanwhile, Atos is training the entire IT team in security policies and procedures. At games time, the IT security team is expected to be operational 24x7.

However, the winter games, although a little smaller in size compared to the summer games, represent a major challenge due to the environment (venues in the mountains, weather constraints, transportation and communication issues).

The IT infrastructure is expected to comprise:

* 450 Intel-based servers and Unix boxes
* 4 700 computers
* 700 printers
* 1 000 commentator information systems terminals
* 800 intranet terminals
* 100 000 hours of testing

Atos designed and built two main IT systems to run the games. The Information Diffusion System will relay results and athlete information to 2 500 athletes and 10 000 media representatives during the Torino games. The Games Management Systems will provide accreditation, transportation and accommodation schedules, medical encounter reports, sports qualifications and protocol information.

For the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games, Atos will manage a consortium of IT suppliers and partners, including:

* Omega: Timing and scoring systems and services, scoreboards, on-venue results systems
* Kodak: Film/photography and imaging system; help to provide accreditation badge imaging
* Lenovo: Hardware and related services
* Kyocera: Printers and reprographics

Atos is also co-operating with:

* Panasonic: TVs, videos and equipment
* Samsung: Wireless communications equipment
* Telecom Italia: Telecoms and networking active elements
* Tim: Mobile telecom
* Eutelsat: Satellite operator
* Nortel: Communications services

Through its acquisition of SchlumbergerSema in January last year, Atos gained one of the largest IT-related sports contracts covering the games at Athens, Greece in 2004; Torino, Italy in 2006; and Beijing, China in 2008.