And there’s a deeper enterprise lesson right here for IT leaders. The stadium didn’t simply add extra entry factors. The staff carried out a complete expertise overhaul. They mixed their sound techniques, LED screens (together with the world’s largest out of doors 4K video boards), and manufacturing techniques right into a single, brand-new Cisco information middle. That is the “One Cisco” method I’ve written about earlier than—breaking down silos to create a unified, observable setting. Whereas there are numerous distributors that provide merchandise to stadiums, Cisco’s platform method addresses all points of stadium operations.
Safety and networking in tandem
One of the vital spectacular points of the Levi’s Stadium tour was seeing how the Safe Networking imaginative and prescient has come collectively. George Griesler, senior director of cybersecurity for the NFL, supplied some specifics of the deployment whereas giving a tour of the safety operations middle.
The Tremendous Bowl is taken into account a Tier 1 occasion, which means it’s a high-value goal for risk actors. To prepare for this, the NFL and Cisco have deployed a large overlay community that acts as a frontline protection for the Tremendous Bowl. A Joint Operation Middle (JOC) is energetic 24/7, combining NFL safety groups, stadium IT, and Cisco consultants to watch for incidents. Safety groups are seeing a ramp-up in assaults, primarily consisting of short-lived malicious domains, credential compromises, and phishing makes an attempt utilizing the NFL emblem.
The staff makes use of a blocking assault philosophy—proactively stopping threats by way of firewalls, Cisco Umbrella (DNS), and XDR (prolonged detection and response) earlier than they’ll disrupt sport operations or human security. Griesler shared these statistics as a snapshot of exercise over a 7-day interval main as much as the sport:
- 27,000+ energetic shoppers on the community
- 400,000+ firewall connection makes an attempt blocked
- 47,000+ malicious DNS queries blocked by way of Cisco Umbrella
The stadium community runs ticketing, medical companies, and thousands and thousands of {dollars} in concessions over the identical wires, so stopping breaches is crucial.
Griesler talked in regards to the impression if a breach have been to occur: “If a risk actor takes over a scoreboard or a digital signal or takes management of a PA system, we might have pandemonium and panic within the stadium. I’m not saying breaches received’t happen, however now we’ve got the playbook to react.”
