By Rory Carroll
MILAN, Feb 5 (Reuters) – There are no credible security threats to the Milano Cortina Games, a top U.S. security official told Reuters in Milan on the eve of the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics.
“Right now we are not tracking any credible threats,” Tim Ayers, director of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Major Events Coordination Division, said in an interview on Thursday.
Ayers said the number one concern when securing a large event like the Olympics was a “lone wolf attack.”
“That’s something where some actor decides to do something one day. There’s no prior planning, they just decide to do something. That’s always a concern,” he said.
“Fortunately the plan the Italians have put forward as far as concentric rings of security, shutting down streets, valid checks at all the places – that pretty much holds back on that concern.”
Drones, especially for a Games that is taking place across such a large geographical area, are another concern, but he said Italy’s airspace was well controlled by central and local governments.
“Although drones are always a concern everywhere, I think the plan the Italians have put forth is pretty strong to hold back drones,” he said.
Cyber attacks also rank high on the list of potential security risks.
“Cyber attacks are always a concern. Every network, whether it’s MiCo26, the Italian government, whatever it might be, they are probably seeing up to 1,000 DDoS – distributed denial-of-service attacks – each day,” he said.
“But once again I believe the Italians are pretty much up to task in stopping those attacks.”
Several political and environmental protests are scheduled to take place in the coming days and Ayers said that he was confident in DSS’s ability to safeguard American athletes and tourists in Italy for the Games.
“With the protests we try to find out that information as early as possible,” he said.
“Ninety five percent of the protests that happen in Italy have to be registered with the government, so they are either registered or people are talking about them on social media, so we find out about them.”
DSS will first try to navigate American athletes away from the area where the protests are taking place but if that’s not possible, he said Italian security forces and police have plenty of experience in dealing with those situations.
“The Italians are steady hands when it comes to protests. They’ve seen them before and they’ll see them again. They know exactly what to do,” he said.
“There have been several protests in the past year right here outside the U.S. Consulate in Milan. The Italians every time have held back the protest and channeled them into where they are supposed to be and controlled it.
“We have no reason to believe they won’t do the same thing here.”
Opening Ceremony for the Games will be held on Friday at Milan’s San Siro stadium.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in MilanEditing by Toby Davis)
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