Hackers are in demand for ransom from Manchester United after a cyber attack as the club 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.
Manchester United are being held to ransom by unknown cyber attackers who are in demand for an unknown amount of money. The cyber attackers have crippled the club’s systems and the team is now facing the option of either paying up or they risk seeing highly sensitive information on public domain.
It is however said the club has brought in a team of technical experts to contain the potentially “disastrous” attack that was launched more than a week ago.
But, it is 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.
It said, “the NCSC is aware of an incident affecting Manchester United Football Club and we are working with the organization and partners to understand the impact”.
The embarrassing lapse of security at one of the world’s biggest sports clubs are believed to be far more serious than first feared. But, NCSC revealed that last year, the EFL club was hit with a £5m demand and the biggest single loss to a sports organization from cybercrime was £4m.
United could find themselves in the same situation and fines of £9m, £18m, or two percent 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.