Today say the launch of the Olympic games and here’s hoping that the rest of the games are as good as the opening ceremony.  But what has the Olympic games got to do with information security?  Well here are some of the issues that you should consider over the duration of the event;

• Already a number of online scams have appeared related to the games, such as websites selling fake tickets to the event.  I doubt that those criminals’ scruples would also stop them abusing the credit card details that people submit to these sites.
• Criminals will use the Olympic Games as a ruse to get people to download malware to recruit their systems to be part of a botnet.  No doubt the Storm botnet will be sending emails with titles relating to terrorist attacks against the games or a famous athlete caught in a compromising situation or other similar ruses to get your users to download the botnet software.
• We will also probably see a number of phishing attacks using the games as a bait to lure unsuspecting people.  Phishing emails telling users they have won tickets to the game will come as no surprise.
• These Olympics will have a huge online presence with various sites offering live steaming media coverage of the events.  If you do not manage this properly your network could be swamped with this traffic leading to a nice self inflicted denial of service attack.
• Numerous fake websites will no doubt be set up offering coverage of the games online to also download malware onto the unsuspecting visitor’s computer.
• Legitimate websites will also be targetted by criminals to infect these sites with their malware so that it is downloaded to vulnarable machines that visit them.

So if you want to be able to relax and enjoy the games without becoming an unwilling competitor against the bad guys you should look at the following;

• Increase your security awareness training amongst your users.  Make them aware of the possible threats that they may face.
• Make sure your anti-virus software is up to date and has been distributed to all computers.
• Ensure that all necessary patches have been applied to PCs, especially in relation to their browsers and other components such as media and flash players.
• Ensure your perimeter defences are up to date and that you are scanning all Internet traffic, be that email or web traffic, for malicious content.
• Ensure you have QOS (Quality of Service) enabled on your network to ensure legitimate business traffic is not impeded by those users streaming their live coverage of the net. 
• People may use their laptops at home to access sites relating to the games so ensure that you have end point security enabled to prevent any infected devices connecting back into your network.
• Ensure portable devices like laptops are encrypted.  Users may watch certain events in pubs, hotels or friends houses and either have their laptop with them on the way to or from work.

By considering the above you should be in a better position to be able to enjoy the spectacle that the Olympic Games are.