Subject: [NEXTEL-1] No Gold Medal for Wireless at Olympics

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 15:29:41 -0400

No Gold Medal for Wireless at Olympics

Wireless got shut out of the running at the Olympics this summer due to
security concerns. The systems integrator for the Athens Olympics, Atos
Origin, said concerns about potential attacks kept him confined to
traditional and IP-based networks. Public Wi-Fi may be available to the
general public, but it will not be used by the Olympic Games.

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Wireless out of the running at Olympics

By Daniel Thomas in Athens [20-05-2004]

Games IT chiefs opt for wide area and IP-based networks as security
fears KO Wi-Fi Security concerns and lack of faith in reliability mean
that wireless networks will not play a part in the running of this
year's Athens Olympics, which kick off in three months' time.

Atos Origin, the systems integrator in charge of managing the IT
infrastructure for the Games, said that worries about malicious attacks
meant that only traditional wide area and IP-based local networks would
be used.
With networks authenticating staff, recording and relaying competition
results and providing real-time images and analysis to TV commentators
there can be no mistakes when it comes to security, said Claude
Philipps, Atos Origin's programme director for the Games.

"We need to be ready before 13 August and the date cannot be moved,"
said Philipps.
"Here in Athens we have predicted that there could be 200,000 security
alarms a day," added Yan Noblot, security information manager at Atos
Origin.

To reduce chances of an outside attack on the IT system, Noblot said,
wireless networks will not play a part in the Games Management System.

This is a large-scale Enterprise Resource Planning system that pulls
together many of the organisational components of the Olympics, such as
transport and accommodation logistics, staffing and security
accreditation and protocols.
"You may have [public] Wi-Fi being offered by ISPs during the Olympics,
but we will not be having it in the Games' network," said Noblot.

"There are tokens and other security, but if some stupid guy came into a
stadium with a signal generator and jammed the system, what could we
do?"

Noblot also said that there were no satisfactory wireless solutions that
could ensure the 100 per cent availability required for real-time relay
of the Olympic event information that Atos is trying to protect.

The firm is also stripping out other possible intrusion points into the
network in its 10,500 Olympic PCs, including USB ports and floppy disk
drives, and is deploying antivirus, firewall and intruder detection
devices.

All networks and data storage systems will be redundant, through the use
of multiple backups, to ensure that systems stay live in case of a
failure or attack.

"We are also building a secondary data centre outside of Athens to
protect against disasters like earthquakes," said Philipps.

http://www.vnunet.com/lite/News/1155293

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