Learning from Olympic technology.(Insight, Analysis & Advice)

(Network Computing Magazine Article, CNET News Article, Associated Press Article, WindowsSecurity.com Article)

When the flame goes out on the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, the lessons learned will extend well beyond the world of sports. The unprecedented security measures implemented for these games will influence the world of IT for years to come. Make sure you study the lessons learned in Greece to ensure your own security strategies are up to snuff.

Some Background

The $350 million IT budget, the largest in Olympic history, incorporates an overlapping series of IT security components that cover all venues.

The security blanket thrown up by the Olympic Incident Response Team (OIRT) includes a wide array of front-end and backend systems to manage the massive streams of data and look for telltale signs of nefarious activity. Although much of the basic technology isn't necessarily new, the scale and integration should provide lessons to anyone implementing IT security processes, no matter how small or large your organization's infrastructure may be.

Key Strategies Used

The OIRT has applied the lessons from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to advance the state of the sporting security art. During those games, swarms of false alarms threatened to overwhelm the network and the team's ability to manage it. This time out, they're better prepared through the use of the following strategies: