The SS Lazio has recently suffered a cybernetic assault, but it is not the only team that has been victim of such attacks

Leer en español: ¿Qué clubes han sido víctimas de los hackers?

The advancement of technology is constant and overwhelming, as it achieves progress at an unimaginable speed. These growing technological dynamics are possible thanks to the programmers, whose imagination goes beyond the cybernetic limits. However, there are intrepid who, regardless of restrictions, perform this activity to interfere in the privacy of people or organizations and reveal their information to the world.

Football has not been exempt from this violation of the right to privacy, as there have been several cases in which clubs and agencies of great prestige have suffered cyber-attacks. Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and SS Lazio, among others, have been some of the most recent victims of hackers who have made incursions IGNORE INTO football.

The SS Lazio was conned

One of the most traditional Italian clubs, the SS Lazio, was recently cybernetically cheated. The club of the capital of Italy paid in installments, to Feyenoord of Holland, the signing of the Dutchman Stefan de Vrij since July 2014. The cost of the player was 8.5 million euros.

The payments had been made normally, until the Lazio received an email in which the Feyenoord requested the payment of two million euros and attached the number of a bank account. The Italian club complied with the instructions of said mail and made the payment. Then, the team received another email from Feyenoord stating that the money had not reached their bank accounts and that they had never sent an email giving another bank account and asking for the last deposit.

According to the Italian newspaper Il Tempo, which revealed the story, a hacker of Spanish origin would have intercepted the Lazio servers, would have gone through the Feyenoord in the fraudulent mail, and would have given the account number to deposit the money.

The prosecutor Edmondo De Gregorio, in collaboration with the Polizia Postale, tracked the account and discovered that it does belong to the Netherlands and that the money was quickly distributed to accounts in Spain and Liechtenstein. The investigations continue and it is expected that it will be a difficult task to identify and find the hacker who has cheated the Italian club.

Real Madrid and FC Barcelona exposed to the world

In August of 2017, the two most important clubs in Spain suffered cyber attacks to demonstrate the growing power of hackers. FC Barcelona was the first to receive the cyber-attack, as it witnessed

how its official Twitter account was hacked. In said social network, it was published that Barcelona signed the Argentine Ángel Di María, which shook the world of soccer. However, minutes later, the following tweet was published: "Hi, FC Barcelona. We are OurMine (Security Group), please contact us and apologize for the joke". Then, another tweet was published in which the hashtag #FCBHack became a global trend. The club quickly recovered its account and eliminated the publications, but the damage was done.

Subsequently, Real Madrid suffered the same attack, as it witnessed how its official Twitter account was hacked by the same group of anonymous programmers. On this occasion, it was announced on the social network that the club signed the Argentine legend of FC Barcelona Lionel Messi, something not very credible. Next, another tweet was published saying: "The OurMine team is here, internet security is shit and we have proved it. Ourmine.org for more security. Not only FC Barcelona. "

Later, a third tweet was published in which the #RealMadridHack hashtag became a global trend. Finally, due to the lack of response from the club to recover its account, the following tweet was published: "We have sold Benzema, do you want us to sign a player? I know it's silly, but I'm bored waiting for Real Madrid. "The club finally recovered its account and eliminated the posts. However, the cybernetic vulnerability of the club and its maximum rival had been evident.

There are different purposes for these talented programmers, but violating cybersecurity and violating the right to privacy makes these acts dangerous for the stability of society. Lazio, Real Madrid, and Barcelona have been some of the victims that served as an example to determine that hackers have great power to intervene the servers of any club or institution on the planet. In this sense, security urgently needs to be reinforced.

LatinAmerican Post | Javier Aldana
Translated from “ ¿Qué clubes han sido víctimas de los hackers?”