The IT security team predicts there will be millions of filtered 'events' - any abnormal computer system behavior - during the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing. This would be three times the frequency of computer issues for the Torino Winter Olympics.

Patrick Adiba, Atos Origin's executive vice president, Olympics and major events, is the man in charge of ensuring these risks are handled, and this vastly complex event is properly project managed. He is responsible for providing strategic direction and executive management of the Atos Origin business unit specializing in Major Events including the Olympic Games from Salt Lake City 2002 and till the 2012 London Games.

As the Olympic Games' IT integrator, Atos Origin is responsible for designing, building and operating the IT infrastructure.

Not sporting events

The events that will most concern the IT security team, which will be working round the clock during the Games, have nothing to do with the athletes.

"We expect to have about 3 million 'events', that is, abnormal IT behavior, a mistake or security breach - during the Games," Adiba said. "That's 200,000 plus per day--so we have to make constant decisions, in real time, on the huge volumes of data and what action to take." (Compare Network Monitoring and Management products)

New and undisclosed intelligent processing methods will be deployed in Beijing to meet these new IT security challenges.

"The key thing what we do in running this Olympic program is risk management from the preparation of the project and during the operation," he said. "We only do risk management; we try to find the best solution, not always the cheapest and the most sophisticated, but one that does the job with the minimal risk."

Conservative and cautious

This focus on handling risk means Atos Origin adopts a conservative and cautious approach. (Compare Patch and Vulnerability Management products)

"In the Olympics, the rule is that we change something only when we absolutely need to, and for good reason, because the technology is obsolete, or if we can provide better service," Adiba said. "We don't mind using 'old' technology if it's safe.

The Olympics is not where we highlight the latest or newest technology, it's more a risk analysis event.