Manchester United Football Club has disclosed a ‘sophisticated’ attempt to compromise its digital systems by organised cyber criminals.
The cyber attack forced the football club to bring in third-party advisors to investigate the incident and minimise the IT disruption caused, which the club described as “ongoing” when revealing the attack on Friday evening.
The football club’s social media channels, including its website and mobile app, were unaffected, and as things stand there’s no indication that any personal data was compromised. Critical matchday systems, meanwhile, remained operational and the game against West Bromwich Albion went ahead as normal.
“The club has taken swift actions to contain the attack and is currently working with expert advisers to investigate the incident and minimize the ongoing IT disruption,” Manchester United said in a statement.
“Although this is a sophisticated operation by organized cyber criminals, the club has extensive protocols and procedures in place for such an event and had rehearsed for this risk. Our cyber defenses identified the attack and shut down affected systems to contain the damage and protect data.”
The footballing industry is rife for all kinds of cyber attacks, from phishing to intrusion, for a number of reasons including the sums of money that clubs at the highest level handle.
In July, for instance, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) called for greater security awareness among the sport’s elite clubs and individuals after several scares in recent months and years. As part of the NCSC report, it was revealed the managing director of an unidentified Premier League football club narrowly avoided losing £1 million during a transfer window after their email account was targeted by hackers.
Fellow Premier League rivals Leicester City Football Club suffered a breach in June 2019 meanwhile, in which hackers made away with financial details of a handful of supporters, including card numbers and CVV security codes.
-
Bigger salaries, more burnout: Is the CISO role in crisis?In-depth CISOs are more stressed than ever before – but why is this and what can be done?
-
Cheap cyber crime kits can be bought on the dark web for less than $25News Research from NordVPN shows phishing kits are now widely available on the dark web and via messaging apps like Telegram, and are often selling for less than $25.
-
"Thinly spread": Questions raised over UK government’s latest cyber funding schemeThe funding will go towards bolstering cyber skills, though some industry experts have questioned the size of the price tag
-
Modern enterprise cybersecuritywhitepaper Cultivating resilience with reduced detection and response times
-
IDC InfoBrief: How CIOs can achieve the promised benefits of sustainabilitywhitepaper CIOs are facing two conflicting strategic imperatives
-
The complete guide to the NIST cybersecurity frameworkWhitepaper Find out how the NIST Cybersecurity framework is evolving
-
Are you prepared for the next attack? The state of application security in 2024Webinar Aligning to NIS2 cybersecurity risk-management obligations in the EU
-
The economics of penetration testing for web application securitywhitepaper Get the most value from your security solution
-
How to extend zero trust to your cloud workloadsWhitepaper Implement zero trust-based security across your entire ecosystem
-
Four requirements for a zero trust branchWhitepaper Effectively navigate the complex and ever-changing demands of security and network connectivity
