back to article London Olympics 'not immune' to cyber attack

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has warned that the London Olympics will not be immune to cyber attack. The man who urged all Blighty to start stocking up on petrol by pouring it into jerry cans said that a crack team has been set up dedicated to guarding the Games against attack. "The Beijing Olympics saw 12 million …

COMMENTS

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  1. Jim Carter

    Francis Maude?

    Crack team?

    My arse!

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: Francis Maude?

      team on crack?

  2. banjomike
    WTF?

    will not be immune to cyber attack ...

    Is ANYTHING immune to cyber attack ?

    1. dotdavid
      Meh

      Re: will not be immune to cyber attack ...

      My cat...

      1. Miek

        Re: will not be immune to cyber attack ...

        Is your cat chipped?

        1. MH Media

          Re: will not be immune to cyber attack ...

          Or connected via CAT5?

        2. TeeCee Gold badge
          Alert

          Re: will not be immune to cyber attack ...

          Makes no odds. Any data obtained from hacking a cat will be corrupted by your observation of it. It's a known cat thing, caused by their inherently quantum nature.

  3. Silverburn
    Happy

    "The internet after all has flourished precisely because it has been shaped by its users, not by governments," he said.

    MP in common sense statement shock.

    In other news: Lucifer complains his legions are not equipped for such icy conditions.

    1. Elmer Phud
      Thumb Up

      shaped by its users, not by governments

      I was looking for the 'Two-Faced Bastard' icon.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surprise, surprise

    "...private organisations working in partnership with each other, government and law enforcement agencies, sharing information ..."

    I wondered how long it would be before we saw signs of a UK equivalent of CISPA.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's hope

    They can stop Dwaine Chambers getting at his test results.

    AC for obvious reasons.

  6. smallfry

    Context?

    I'd like to know how they arrived at the "12 million attacks" figure. Wouldn't a single botnet be capable of this?

    1. Elmer Phud
      Boffin

      Re: Context?

      Botnet?

      Na, just a 13yr old who's left his Lego-hack kit running while he has his supper.

  7. JakeyC

    "12 million cyber security incidents"

    That's bollocks.

  8. Bakunin
    Trollface

    Be prepared

    Store a bit of extra "internet" in a hard drive in the garage.

    1. Alister

      Re: Be prepared

      ...and don't try copying it to a usb stick in the kitchen...

  9. Colin Millar
    Big Brother

    Controlling tah innerwebs

    "the government was going to resist the temptation to over-regulate the internet and try to take control of it."

    Well natch - the government model for over-regulating and controllling the internet is to let their mates do it for lots of folding green stuff.

  10. alain williams Silver badge

    New Olympic Sport ?

    Maybe that ought to be a new event: Who can crack the web site and get themselves a free ticket to the upcoming sports days.

    1. The Envoy
      WTF?

      Re: New Olympic Sport ?

      What?! There's actual sports going on during these "Olympic games"? I was convinced is was just one big marketplace for selling stuff...

  11. joeW

    Cyber cyber cyber cyber cyber cyber cyber cyber cyber cyber cyber

    Do they realize no-one has called anything a cyber-something with a straight face since around 1997?

  12. ukgnome
    Trollface

    erm

    then don't connect it to the internet then.

    1. Thomas 18
      Happy

      Re: erm

      But... but.... how could you build a system without internet access??? how would middle management monitor performance from home?

  13. John A Blackley

    Safest thing

    I think the safest thing for Ministers to do is to keep their mouths shut. Using Francis Maude as an excellent example, each time they open their mouths they demonstrate how little they know about the subject at hand. They should stick to the dictum, 'Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it.'

    Of course the other benefit would be that I wouldn't have to listen to their drivel.

  14. MH Media
    WTF?

    "a crack team has been set up dedicated to guarding the Games against attack"

    That'll be a group of NEETs trained to pull the cables out of the routers/switches if the lights start flashing too quickly.

    That'l be part of an Apprenticship scheme which of course will lead to a well-paid job in computing.

  15. Anonymous C0ward
    Devil

    Come and have a go

    if you think you're hard enough?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't panic

    We have Typhoons at Northolt, Rapiers on the rooftops and now the SAS in the server room.

  17. Mike 137 Silver badge

    not quite the right approach

    Despite the prevalent myth of the Superhacker, there's plenty of solid evidence that most breaches are total pushovers. Just for example, Verizon's 2012 report (on 2011 data) concluded that 96% (4% more than the previous year) of attacks were "not highly difficult" and that "97% of breaches were avoidable through simple or intermediate controls".

    So what we really need is not a few expensive cyber whiz kids on short term assignment for the duration of the London jamboree, but for ordinary IT staff at all levels to be competent in basic security housekeeping. It would be much safer and vastly more cost-effective, and would also release the real experts to protect us against the occasional attacks that are not so trivial.

    However, it's not in the interest of the attackers, the defenders or indeed many security researchers to point out how easy cyber attacks currently are to accomplish, as they would all lose face (and, in many cases, huge revenue streams or big salaries). So we are kept in ignorance by an informal (and albeit uncomfortable) collaboration of deception on the part of pretty much all those who know the real situation. It would be incredibly difficult for government to justify proposed levels of expenditure on "cyber defence" if it was well known that the vast majority of their appallingly frequent security problems stem from the incompetence and slackness of the implementers and defenders of their systems. But we are up against a very determined adversary, so we have only one real choice - face facts or lose.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Protecting the Olympics

    What a good idea.

    After all it's important to protect the Olympics from the traditonal forms of crime which are so common in cyberspace - drug abuse, drug dealing, political extremism, bribery, corruption, money laundering, bogus charities, corporate fraud.

    They don't want anyone muscling in.

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