- AFC football governing body reportedly compromised, exposing confidential data of more than 150,000 members
- The leaked records allegedly include scans of passports, contracts, emails and detailed player information.
- The attack was billed as the “biggest breach in football history”, and investigators warned of risks of fraud.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the main football governing body in Asia, has apparently been compromised after an attack left personal and highly sensitive data of more than 150,000 members exposed to the dark web.
A report from Dataminr claims that a threat actor posted a thread on the PwnForums marketplace over the weekend, announcing the file.
In it, the attackers say that they got rid of “the entire database of AFC players and coaches”, including data from Al Nassr FC, where giants like Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mané and Marcelo Brozović play. The database allegedly contains scans of AFC passports, contracts, emails and registration files.
Article continues below.
Publish samples
“The combination of passport scans, verified email addresses and player contract data creates a highly actionable package for financial fraud, contract manipulation and social engineering targeting some of the world’s highest-earning athletes,” said Jeanette Miller-Osborn, field cyber intelligence officer at Dataminr.
The threat actor posted some samples to prove the authenticity of his claims and in addition to the above, they also contained people’s full legal names, dates of birth, nationalities, player positions, AFC IDs, club names, match details and venue information.
The threat actor thanked ShinyHunters for their help in publishing the leak and described the attack as “the biggest breach in football history.” However, this person is most likely not affiliated with the group, as Dataminr described them as a “forum-level operator leveraging ShinyHunters’ credibility,” just to try to get some money for their efforts.
At press time, the AFC has not yet commented on the leak.
At the same time, researchers urged both the AFC and its members to be careful with incoming messages and to review how they store athlete data.
The best antivirus for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
