The Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where an Israeli company will be supervising security for the 2016 olympic games. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Israeli security company ISDS has been selected to provide security during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. The company has been given a $2.2 billion security budget for the event.

“We have a great challenge facing us,” ISDS Vice President Ron Shafran told Globes.

“We already have teams operating in Brazil, and unofficially operated there during the World Cup last summer,” he said. “Since it was announced that Brazil would host the Olympic Games, we have greatly expanded our activity in the country, and competed in this long and difficult tender. Our teams are already preparing for the Olympics, designing our security concept and building technological systems to be installed at the various facilities where the competitions will take place in Rio and four other regions around the country. The games will begin on August 5, 2016, and will continue until December 2016, including the special Olympics.”

Shafran said the company “will integrate the entire security system at the games” and “determine the specifications for the necessary security system,” then integrate “the right technologies from Israel and the rest of the world.”

“We’ll also include small and medium-sized Israeli companies—ones with big solutions,” he said. “We’ll let these companies take part in this rare opportunity and benefit from a fitting stage for displaying their technologies in intelligence, mass traffic management, etc. This whole business will be an incubator for Israeli technologies and solutions in these areas.”