The fastest men in the world

Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake, the fastest men in the world, storm over the line together in the 100-metres final of the London Olympics - a photo finish.

Analysts say infiltrating the scoring and timing systems minimum pressure valve at one of the 35 competition venues around Britain, especially the Olympic stadium in east London, is a target for hackers looking to spread political messages, known as 'hacktivists', and criminal gangs looking to cash in on the Games.

At the 2008 Beijing Games, around 12 million potential cyber attacks - varying in type and potency - were successfully defended each day but over the last four years the scams and cyber campaigns perpetrated by hackers have grown in scale and complexity.

Paris-based Atos, the lead technology company for the Olympics since 2002, expects up to 14 million possible attacks every day during the London games.

Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer of eEye Digital (Milan: DIB.MI - news) Security and a former hacker who was raided by the FBI when he was 17, said the Olympics was a prime target.

Hacktivists mount attacks to highlight political or social causes, and analysts say they are seen as more likely to target the Games than state-backed hackers.

"Hacktivist groups like LulzSec and Anonymous will want to go after the Olympics to make a point because it would give them an immediate worldwide audience for their social and promotional luggage political messages," said a cyber security consultant for the Games who did not want to be named.

Atos, which expects to handle about two million pieces of key data throughout the event - a third more than at Beijing - has carried out more than 200,000 hours of testing, including simulating cyber attacks from so-called 'ethical hackers' invited to join the tests.

The company, which is responsible for some 11,500 computers and servers across Britain, will monitor possible cyber threats second by second from its Olympic Technology Operations Centre in east London's Canary Wharf business district.

"It would be quite complicated to get into this network without being detected," said Atos' executive vice president Patrick Adiba. "I can never be 100 percent, but it is close to 100 percent."

If the main Olympic systems prove to be impregnable hackers could instead target transport infrastructure, financial operations or its top corporate sponsors.

Visa, for example, is the Olympics' only approved credit supplier and has a monopoly on all d3 gold of the cash dispensing machines around the Olympic sites.

Flame, which is capable of espionage and sabotaging computer systems, was likely used to attack Iran in April, while Shady RAT - a virus that persistently attacks computers and individual users - targeted the International Olympic Committee and four Olympic bodies in recent years.

Earlier this year MI5 chief Jonathan Evans said cyber attacks against the British government and businesses had reached "astonishing levels" and that the London Games would be an "attractive target" for cyber criminals.

Britain's minister responsible for cyber terrorism, Francis Maude, warned in May that the Olympics would "not be immune to cyber-attacks", given the hundreds of hotels, training centres and related facilities being used by athletes, brazed rivets,coaches, Games officials and dignitaries during the Games.