May 14, 2008
Thanks to the foresight and preparedness of the Doha Asian Games Organizing Committee, the 2006 Asian games took place without disruptions caused by cybersecurity incidents. As Qatar turns its attention to the 2016 Olympics, it is interesting to speculate about what sorts of cybersecurity events the host city for that event should be preparing for.
Some light was shed on this issue in a recent interview with Jean-Michel Louboutin, Interpol's Executive Director for Police Services, who was asked what kind of cybercrime he expected at the Olympics in China this summer. Louboutin replied that Interpol is performing a threat assessment for the summer games and, so far, has not detected threats of major cybercrimes. He acknowledged that there may be attacks on the small networks used for selling tickets, but he is much more worried about the physical security of the visitors to the Olympics than he is about major cyberattacks. That's got to be a relief for the National Computer network Emergency Response technical Team/Coordination Center of China!