A New Gold Medal Available in London This Year
posted Sunday Jul 8, 2012 by Scott Ertz
Everyone knows that countries from all over the world will begin a global sports competition like no other in just a few short weeks, jockeying for the ultimate prize: Summer Gold. What most people do not know, however, is there will be another competition going on in the same city at the same time, and the prize for this competition is not quite as prestigious in the sports realm, but very prestigious on the Internet: 'Lulz."
This battle will be between the white and black hat computer security experts. London Olympic officials are expecting the hacking attempts during this year's games to be stronger than all other games together. Richard Clarke, England's counter-terrorism department director, said he believed the hacking threat at this year's games would rise to the level of physical threats at previous games. The ultimate laugh would be getting their own text to display on scoreboards all over London and televisions around the world.
Patrick Adiba, Atos executive vice president for the Olympic Games and major events, said about the matter,
It is very unlikely, as it all operates on a very secure network. It would be quite complicated to get into this network without being detected. It can never be 100 percent, but it is close to 100 percent.
Is everyone as optimistic as the guy whose job it is to convince people it is all going to be okay? Hit the break to find out.
Joel Harding, retired military intelligence and information consultant, said,
The security at the 2012 London Olympics is as tight as any Olympics - ever... The Olympics are going to attract a ton of attention, so of course hackers are going to try to put 'Go Our Country!' on the scoreboard.
The more attention a hacker can cause, the more lulz and the greater the bragging rights. But we've already heard that {hacking the scoreboard} is going to be spectacularly difficult, so I tend to doubt we'll see that.
But scoreboards aren't the only targets in London during the Olympics. Harding adds,
There are a ton of other things, such as schedules, transportation systems, water, physical security, telephones - you name it - all automated and networked. Those would be great targets and shutting down all the water would shut down the Olympics.
Since all this attention is on London, however, making the London Eye Ferris Wheel stop or run backwards would be a worthy goal. The London Underground is an attractive target. The entire city is in the crosshairs.
For the success of the games and the safety of the competitors, hopefully the white hats will win this one, but there is a devious part of me that thinks it will be fun to see random messages on the scoreboards. What do you think? Let me know in the comments section.
