Premier League transfers in jeopardy as hackers access a director’s email.
The bureau for Cyber Security Centre in England revealed that a Premier League club came close to losing the sum of £1m during a deal due to cyber attack.
Reports reveal that it took the intervention of the club’s bank to stop the theft; this highlights some of the reasons why Premier League clubs and sports need to improve its cybersecurity.
National Cyber Security Centre NCSC Paul Chichester reveals that “The impact of cybercriminal cashing in on this industry is very real.”
Reports also show that the email address of the Director managing the transfer had been hacked while the transfer negotiation was ongoing, which lead to the attempt to divert the 1m transfer fee.
Some English Premier League clubs had suffered a significant amount of “ransomware attack” that crippled the club’s security system and almost shut down its end user’s devices, but locally stored data were lost in the attack
An NCSC official revealed that ” Several servers were also affected, leaving the club unable to use their corporate email. The stadium CCTV and turnstiles were non-operational, which almost resulted in a fixture cancellation. All systems at the stadium were connected to one network (VLAN). This meant that the infection spread across the estate quickly”
He also revealed the cost-effect of these incident could range from £10,000 and £100,000. Cyber criminals assume the role of foreign clubs interested in doing business with the club in an attempt to gain access to the Director’s email
While in another incident, a staff of a racecourse lost over £15,000 while trying to buy equipment from a fake eBay website.
British Olympic Association Chairman Sir Hugh Robertson said: “This report is a crucial first step, helping sports organizations to better understand the threat and highlighting practical steps that organizations should take to improve cyber-security practices.”
