The United States is providing Greece with radiation detection equipment to boost defences against potential terrorist threats to the Athens Games, such as a dirty bomb. The devices will be presented Tuesday and installed at airports and ports. Plans to safeguard the Games at a cost of $1.2 billion are the most expensive in Olympic history and four times higher than Sydney Australia’s security budget four years ago.
Greek security officials briefed representatives from the 202 countries taking part in the Olympics on the security arrangements for the Games. They explained administration operations, border controls, the role of the armed forces, air space surveillance and special planning for VIP transfers and the protection of sponsors.
OTE Telecom and its mobile and internet subsidiaries CosmOTE and OTE net presented Monday their 58.6 million euro sponsorship of the Olympic Games. Half of the sum will be in cash and the rest in services. The group has also invested 246 million euros of which 125 million went into infrastructure which will be reused.
IT services company Atos Origin with primary responsibility for the IT at the Games, Tuesday announced that the first of two technical rehearsals has been successfully completed for the Games. Seventy-six different scenarios were tested over a one-week period by a team of about 200 IT professionals operating in Games time conditions. The scenarios ranged from information security issues, to power outages, to staff being absent from work, to sports events being rescheduled. The scenarios were set up, monitored and the behaviour and reaction was evaluated. IT staff from Athens 2004, Atos Origin and all the IT consortium members were based across eight venues. A second technical rehearsal will take place in June when more venues will be used and some IT volunteers will participate.
And finally, the Athens Games are sure to attract gangs engaged in the sex trade drawn by the possibilities offered by one million visitors visiting Athens from all over the world. Although authorities said they will deal with the threat specific plans were not announced for obvious reasons.
