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Football

27th Nov 2020

Man Utd being ‘held to ransom for millions of pounds’ by cyber criminals

Simon Lloyd

Just one normal day of Manchester United…

Manchester United are reportedly being held to ransom by cyber criminals who are demanding millions of pounds from the Premier League club.

United announced last week that it had been targeted in a sophisticated operation by an organised group of cyber criminals that resulted in minor disruption to their IT services.

Although the issue appeared to have been dealt with, a report from Sportsmail now suggests the problem is far from resolved and much worse than initially feared.

United are working alongside the National Cyber Security Centre to assess the potential damage with the report claiming the club’s networks have been infected with a computer virus known as ransomware. Should they not pay the hackers, it adds, they face seeing potentially highly sensitive information about the club and its players leaked to the public.

As of yet, there are no clues as to who is behind the attack or the fee they are demanding to relinquish any control they have.

‘Following the recent cyber attack on the club, our IT team and external experts secured our networks and have conducted forensic investigations,’ read a statement released by United on Thursday.

‘This attack was by nature disruptive, but we are not currently aware of any fan data being compromised.

‘Critical systems required for matches to take place at Old Trafford remained secure and games have gone ahead as normal.

‘The club will not be commenting on speculation regarding who may have been responsible for this attack or the motives behind it.’