A $300 million Olympic computer system is responsible for managing all of the competition results for the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games. The system will be protected with firewalls and anti-virus software, there’s an intrusion detection system to alert operators when someone tried to break in, and a response team that goes out and fixes whatever might get interrupted by a hacker.
The network will send statistics to reporters and produce credential for 70,000 members of the news media, dignitaries and athletes attending the Games.
David Busser, Salt Lake Organizing Committee information technology director says, “our objectives here are to protect our network and systems from any unauthorized entry. There will be attempts on all fronts”.
SchlumbergerSema, one of the Games sponsors, is responsible for making sure different components in the system work together, and will provide the service for free. Unlike the Salt Lake City network security company, Satel, which is helping install software and hardware to stymie hackers, for a fee. Satel’s director of security consulting said the Olympic computer network is “one of the most complicated network infrastructures I’ve seen”.
Meanwhile, male volunteers at the Salt Lake Games will have to keep their facial hair neatly trimmed, and male and female volunteers are to confine hair length “for safety reasons or to ensure eye contact with guests”. It’s all outlined in a 150-page manual given to volunteers. And if they’re asked about the Salt Lake bid scandal, the manual suggests this response, “there were some challenges in the past, but now we are all focused on staging very successful Games”.
And forget about keeping any gifts, it’s not encouraged. Volunteers are to report any gift larger than a pin to their supervisor, who will then record the gift on a register. The item will then be turned over to the venue manager. The manual states, “when receiving a gift, graciously accept the gift and thank the person for his/her thoughtfulness”.
According to the manual, the volunteers have to “avoid yawning, stretching or anything that might suggest distraction, boredom or disrespect” and volunteers are asked not to “slouch, stand with hands in pockets, on hips or with arms folded”. Ed Eynon, SLOC’s vice president for human relations says it’s because these gestures send the wrong message to visitors.
Finally, Canadians living in Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan can win a 24-hour trip to Salt Lake for the Tragically Hip concert Feb. 23 at the University of Utah. There are also three four-day trips for a group of four to the show and gold medal hockey game. All they have to do is find scratch-and-win cards in specially marked cases of Labatt Blue starting Nov. 26.
