Case Studies

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by Mark Rowe

A case study of ID security at the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in midsummer 2014. Printers produced some 130,000 accreditation passes as used by the thousands of athletes, staff, contractors and other on-site personnel.

The contractor Toshiba TEC started work on the passes two years before the Games began. For the visiting athletes, their passes also acted as a visa waiver to assist their entry into the UK. Without them being correctly printed, the athletes could not gain access to the Games. Due to their use as travel documents, Toshiba says that it had to work closely with the UK border agency to ensure they satisfied the demands of the Home Office.

The paper type was also specified by Glasgow 2014 and could not be changed. It had a number of security features to help mitigate pass fraud including an ultra violet coating. In fact, the paper was kept in a secure safe and Toshiba TEC had to sign for the paper it used and return any that was left over. It was important that the paper was tamper-proof to avoid unauthorised people who could potentially pose a security risk gaining access to the Games.

Glasgow 2014’s brief for the printing device for this process was a small footprint and high speed output. After testing and scoping, Toshiba TEC’s e-STUDIO407CS series was chosen. It was important that the MFP did not interfere with the perforations on the paper or compromise it in any other way.

The toner for the devices also had to be virtually indestructible and used at high temperature for maximum penetration into the paper, to prevent it being altered. The document was submitted to Glasgow 2014 for construction and scratch testing over several months to see if the print could be erased at all.

A trial accreditation run for border agency staff was run by the printer supplier. This was so that personnel had an understanding of what the passes looked like and were then unlikely to allow unauthorised people gain entry to the Games.

Glasgow 2014 required detailed plans from the printer company on how it was going to test the devices and how it would rectify any issues to avoid interruption to printing during the event, as well as information on network and infrastructure design. This testing went way beyond what is normally required and meant collaboration with others including network providers, infrastructure suppliers.

The devices were all reviewed by the Games security team beforehand to ensure they could not be hacked. When they found that the security on one model needed to be improved, the printer firm worked with its headquarters in Japan to revise the firmware and make the required security adjustments.

The XX Commonwealth Games was an international, multi-sport event involving 71 teams of athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. Featuring 17 sports over 11 days of competition, there were 261 different medal events on show, from the precision of lawn bowls to the exciting combat of wrestling and judo, as well as the high adrenaline of track events and the grace and beauty of gymnastics.

As well as the Athletes’ Village there were 14 individual venues and most sports took place on three compact site clusters to the east, south and west of the city centre. The Games mostly took place in venues that already existed, such as Scotland’s National Stadium Hampden Park and the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC). Indeed, rather than go to the huge expense of building a new stadium, Hampden was transformed from a football stadium into an elite athletics arena that hosted track and field.

Toshiba TEC, based in Chertsey, was awarded the role of Official Office Automation Supporter by Glasgow 2014, and supplied printers for the build-up period and during the Games itself. over 600 of its e-STUDIO MFPs and desktop printing devices were deployed, supported by on-site engineers, a dedicated helpdesk and project managers. The MFPs were located everywhere from back offices and receptions through to media and results areas, as well as anywhere else they were needed. The number of devices deployed in each location depended on the size of venue and the expected demand. For example, the triathlon needed around 18 devices, while the SECC – which as well as hosting a number of events was also home to the International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre – required well over 100. Visit: www.toshibatec.co.uk.

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