The English FA (Football Association) will elevate its cyber safety in Russia for the 2018 World Cup after hacking assaults by a team suspected of connections to a Russian secret agency, claimed the media.
The FA has written a memo to FIFA, the governing body of the soccer, showing its anxieties about private data such as strategies, injuries, and tactics being leaked prior to the matches at the time of the World Cup, British media claimed. England staff and players have been counseled not to utilize Russia’s public Wi-Fi, comprising the connections offered at the team hotel. As per reports from the media, the FA has also introduced encrypted passwords, reinforced firewalls, and has severe guidelines for players concerning social media. The FA cannot instantly be reached for feedback.
England, who with 20 points led Group F, can lock their participation with a win in the World Cup over Slovenia at Wembley on October 5, 2017 in their second to last qualifying match. In August, Fancy Bears, the hacking group, leaked anti-doping data related to footballers and claimed that over 150 players were unsuccessful in 2015 in drug tests. IAAF, the athletics governing body, claimed in April that it had undergone a cyber attack that it thought compromised data regarding medical records of the athletes.
The group has been connected by Western governments and security experts blamed a Russian secret agency for most of the cyber operations at the time of the U.S. election of 2016. Russia has refused interfering in the election. “We can verify that the FA has sent a memo to FIFA associated to the attack form Fancy Bears. In its respond, FIFA has told the FA that it stays pledged to avoiding security assaults overall,” a FIFA spokesperson claimed to the British media.
“With respect to the attack from Fancy Bears in particular, it is currently examining the incident to determine whether infrastructure of FIFA was compromised,” the spokesperson further added. The spokesperson was mentioned as calcimining that FIFA was depending on advice from 3rd parties’ expert on computer safety. “It is for this reason that FIFA does not and can’t offer any computer safety advice to 3rd parties,” the spokesperson said.