How IBM Secured the 2022 US Open

IBM is the host of the digital platforms and official digital innovation partner for the US Open Tennis Championship. IBM maintains and secures the platforms. There are 256 singles players on the court in the main draws, 850,000 spectators in stands and 13 million fans watching at home.

IBM helps the US Open provide insights to fans via IBM Power Index and Match Insights with Watson. The team uses multiple environments, data types, devices, clouds and platforms to collect, analyze and report the vast amounts of data. Throughout the tournament, the team prioritizes cybersecurity. It is possible to have a security incident in any of these areas and disrupt the event.

IBM turns to its IBM Security QRadar platform to guard the entire US Open technology environment. The platform assesses the threat based on parameters, such as threat type and magnitude, and assigns a threat level. IBM security analysts are then automated to manage these threats.

Security team had been hit with an increasing number of wannabe penetration testing scanners. The US Open was no exception. One analyst noticed a spike in scanning after the tournament. He found a smaller attack targeting trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) exploits. It was a VPS service offering virtual machines for use. Both attacks had the same cipher specs on the SSH port and running Zero MQ.

IBM Security QRadar and IBM Cloud Pak for Security provide remediation insights for security events. The importance of security at the US Open is increasing. IBM reduces the risk of the spectator or fan experience being interrupted by a security issue. The security team makes sure that the focus of a tournament remains where it should be.