LONDON (AP) ― Olympic organizers say the technology systems for next year’s games have tested well and can withstand the danger of cyber attacks.
The Technology Operations center, which will monitor security, power, telecommunications and the results systems that will send Olympic data to fans and the world’s media, opened Monday in the Canary Wharf section of London.
“Security is a big concern of the games and cyber security is a major part of that. We are obviously very attentive of the risks involved,” said Paul Deighton, chief executive of London organizing committee LOCOG.
“The key steps we’ve taken to protect these systems are really to make sure we have an independent Olympic-dedicated network which gives us an insulation from the rest of the world that makes it much harder to penetrate.”
A quarter of LOCOG’s overall budget of $3.1 billion has been spent on technology, with organizers expecting to process 30 percent more results than at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
A 450-member team of experts has been working out of the center, trying out the technology in a series of Olympics test events this year.
“It went very well,” Deighton said. “It was a good way to break in the kind of coordination and monitoring we’ll need.”
