BOA Concerned about Safety of Team Data

British Olympic Association (BOA) has expressed concern about its team information's safety following hackers' breaches of the databases with two national sport bodies.

In October 2007, hackers invaded computers at the Amateur Boxing Association of England and GB Canoeing although it wasn't known what exactly they accessed.

The ABAE and GB Canoeing are certain that there wasn't any theft of critical information. Chief Executive, Paul Owen, of GB Canoeing, said that if the hackers are, after critical information, they are targeting the wrong areas. TimesOnline reported this on December 14, 2007.

Simon Clegg, Chief Executive of British Olympic Association, told TimesOnline that their attention towards the hacking incident is drawn in time. The newspaper reported this on December 14, 2007. Clegg said that his association thought that it needed to share the situation with the entire Olympic family. The danger is paramount when one considers the huge amount of information held electronically.

Clegg said that he didn't have any idea about who might have been behind the breach, but he was concerned about the information that the association holds this way on their systems.

The BOA has notified the International Olympic Committee about the breaches, the association said.

The system of GB Canoeing was the first under attack after which the ABAE attacks occurred eight times over a period of three weeks.

Paul King, CEO of ABAE, said that they conducted assessments for each of their boxers, including their strengths and weaknesses and stored the records on their system. The Canadian Press published King's statement in news on December 15, 2007. The association also stores information about the worldwide competitions, King said.

Investigations have found the attacks linked to Chinese IP addresses, although the attackers could well be placed in other nations.

According to Paul Owen, it is quite natural to think that someone is attempting to reach the association's Olympic intelligence, though there is no evidence as yet. The Canadian Press reported this on December 15, 2007.

Head of media, Miriam Wilkens, said that an IT security conference in 2008 would train the bodies to safeguard their data against future attacks. The Canadian Press reported this.

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» SPAMfighter News - 12/29/2007