By Josh Lefkowitz, CEO, Flashpoint
It’s been 50 years since the iconic gathering at Woodstock that saw half a million people come together. Today the lure of mass-participation events is just as strong, whether they are music festivals, global sporting tournaments — the Rugby World Cup in Japan being the next big competition on the agenda — or popular interest gatherings such as Comic-con. People simply love to get together to share experiences.
Unfortunately, any event that attracts large audiences also attracts those who want to make an illicit profit, cause disruption, or inflict physical harm. Sometimes this is little more than a minor inconvenience. But often the impacts are more distressing or dangerous, such as financial loss through fraudulent ticket sales, transport network disruptions, cyberattacks or — worse yet — threats to physical safety. The most high-profile events may provoke nation state actors to target critical national infrastructure with the goal of embarrassing the host nation.
This means organisers have to build a strategy to identify, manage, and mitigate the physical and cybersecurity threats that can converge around mass-participation events….
