Manchester united are being held to ransom for millions of pounds by cyber criminals who have crippled the club’s systems.
United have brought in a team of technical experts to contain the potentially ‘disastrous’ attack that was launched more than a week ago.
But it’s understood the hackers still have United in their grip after the National Cyber Security Centre on Thursday night confirmed they are helping the club to resolve the crisis.
The embarrassing lapse of security at one of the world’s biggest sports clubs is believed to be far more serious than first feared.
Manchester United‘s network has been infected by ransomware – a computer virus – and they now face the option of having to pay up or risk seeing highly sensitive information about the club and its stars leaked into the public domain.
It’s unclear who the criminals are or how much they want, but the NCSC revealed that in the last year an EFL club were hit with a £5m demand and the biggest single loss to a sports organisation from cyber crime was £4m.
United could also face fines of £9m, £18m or two per cent of their total annual worldwide turnover from the independent government body Information Commissioner’s Office if the attack is found to have breached their fans’ data protection – although the club on Thursday night reassured supporters that is not the case.
United also insist the attack will not impact match-day operations. The next home game is against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
A statement on Thursday night read: ‘Following the recent cyber attack on the club, our IT team and external experts secured our networks and have conducted forensic investigations.
This attack was by nature disruptive, but we are not currently aware of any fan data being compromised.’Critical systems required for matches to take place at Old Trafford remained secure and games have gone ahead as normal.
‘The club will not be commenting on speculation regarding who may have been responsible for this attack or the motives behind it.
‘The NCSC warned about the increased threat to the £37billion sports industry from cyber criminals in July, including the more remote possibility of being targeted by nation states such as Russia.
Credits to:Dailymail online
