Wi-Fi Update
Following the Wi-Fi issues experienced yesterday I wanted to share an update as to the progress made and the investigation we’ve carried out.
Following yesterday’s incident, we worked throughout the day and evening with Virgin Media and the Royal Armouries technical teams to launch an investigation to determine the likely cause of the issue; unfortunately this points towards a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is a (potentially) malicious attempt to overwhelm a network or online service with excessive traffic so that legitimate users cannot access it normally.
Naturally we want to sincerely and unreservedly apologise to all delegates, partners and exhibitors affected by the DoS attack on the Wi-Fi network. Over the past 12-months we have worked with The Royal Armouries who’ve invested heavily into digital infrastructure on site and it has been confirmed by Virgin Media that there was, at the time of the issues starting, no bandwidth capacity or network issues.
Steps have been taken by ourselves, Virgin Media and The Royal Armouries now that an investigation has outlined the root of the cause.
While we cannot guarantee there will be no further instances of suspected malicious activity, a number of additional measures have now been implemented across the site.
One key element has been to set up zonal Wi-Fi systems so we can identify quickly the location of any such use alongside heightened security presence. Unfortunately, as an interim measure, we have decided to turn off the complimentary delegate Wi-Fi access and restrict this in the short term for exhibitors, pavilion hosts and partners to help us identify any issues more quickly.
We have sent a more detailed email to sponsors, partners and exhibitors to outline the details and if you have any further questions then this should be directed towards then nearest Helpdesk on site.
We apologise again for any inconvenience caused and we hope these measures are fruitful in identifying any issues. We would like to also thank The Royal Armouries and Virgin Media who’ve supported heavily with the investigation and overnight actions put in place.