Online Olympic security team working hard to safeguard 90 venues

London, Apr 5(ANI): London Olympics is under huge cyber threat and the authorities have already buckled up. An online Olympic security team is working to safeguard 90 venues and enormous amounts of data from invasions by criminals and 'hacktivists'.

Gerry Pennell, chief information officer for London 2012, believes the London Olympics are certainly under cyber threat, so it is better to be prepared.

"We will get cyber-attacks, for sure. Previous games have always been attacked, so we will be attacked. We are working with partners and government to make sure we have the right defences," The Guardian quoted Pennell, as saying.

Atos Origin, the company providing online security, has a dedicated team among its 450 technology staff protecting the systems around the games from hacking.

With 90 venues to look after, and critical data such as competitors' points and medal positions flowing through thousands of computers, any breach or even the suspicion of one would be very discomforting.

The London Games are expected to deal with 30 percent more results data than the Beijing Olympics did, and with online demand for that data likely to be higher than ever, the likeliness for humiliation if the systems are compromised is huge.

The budget for protection is expected to be in the millions. (ANI)