Cyber War Threatens to Disrupt Games

Posted by Karen on May 10, 2012 12:00:00 AM

Fluidata Olympic Countdown: 78 Days to goCyber war - a topic of much public discussion over recent months and now we hear a potential threat to the upcoming Olympics. The Olympics provides an ideal target for foreign intelligence agencies to make high profile disruptions during a time when the global focus is upon London. Minister Francis Maude has highlighted this threat from cyberspace as a ‘genuine menace’ which will possibly create disorder during what was hoped to be a smoothly run games. He bases this claim on 12 million hacking attempts which took place in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. However, fear not, behind the scenes the government have been fully aware of this potential risk, with Maude assuring that a highly trained team of professionals will be guarding computer networks throughout the vulnerable weeks ahead. Due preparations have been made. What seems to be the key is remaining ahead of the threat by constantly investing in the latest security solutions, as according to Maude “what works one day is unlikely to work a matter of months or even weeks later”. In order to facilitate such quick responses the government have set aside a budget of £650m to deal with cyber attacks. Whilst it remains to be seen how the government will cope, they seem to be confident that everything within their power has been done to ensure a successful and incident-free Olympics.

Topics: News