The San Francisco 49ers may have been the victims of a ransomware attack, according to CNN, with the alleged hackers claiming to have stolen financial data about the NFL team.
In a Sunday statement to CNN, the 49ers organization said it had suffered a “network security incident” that affected its computer systems. The ransomware group behind BlackByte ransomware then included the 49ers on a list of organizations it claims to have hacked. The NFL team says it has already contacted law enforcement and cybersecurity firms to help investigate the breach.
The event continues the 2021 trend of a record number of data breaches. Data incidents increased 68% in 2021 compared to 2020, according to data from the Identity Theft Resource Center. In fact, the Joint Cybersecurity Advisory just issued a warning about BlackByte ransomware on Friday, Feb. 11, saying that BlackByte had already compromised “entities in at least three US critical infrastructure sectors (government facilities, financial, and food & agriculture).”
However, the NFL team has declined to comment on whether ransomware was part of the security incident. The 49ers organization specified that it doesn’t believe the incident affected ticket holders, saying the breach was limited to its corporate IT network.
