Cyber criminals demanded almost $4 million in cryptocurrency from an English football League club for recovering encrypted data. Over the past year, 70% of English sports organizations have faced similar problems
Football clubs are most at risk of attacks from hackers, including those who extort cryptocurrency. This warning was issued by the national cyber security center of the United Kingdom (NCSC), as reported on its Twitter account.
According to the Agency, over the past 12 months, about 70% of English sports organizations have been subjected to hacker attacks. 30% of this number reported at least 5 incidents of cyber security violations during the same period, and the same number suffered more than $12 thousand in damages.
The largest attack occurred this week, the NCSC said. Hackers broke into the corporate database of an unnamed English football League club and encrypted the information. For the return of access to it, a ransom of 400 BTC was demanded, at the current exchange rate it is about $4 million.
The club refused to pay the required funds, after which the hackers resumed their attacks. As a result, it has already caused several hundred thousand dollars of damage, the NCSC stressed. Experts added that the attackers infect the servers of the organizations via e-mail. Along with it, malware gets to the computer, which encrypts data and opens access to criminals. The problem is compounded by the fact that in stadiums all systems work within the same network.
