SafeUM
Home Blog Services Download Help About Recharge

Axarhöfði 14, 110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015
SafeUM
Blog
Services
Download
Help
About
Recharge
Menu
Archive
TOP Security!
4 Oct 2017

1,200 football players' personal data exposed in NFL leak

Colin Kaepernick, both for his skill on the field and for his refusal to stand during the national anthem in August last year, is one of the most prominent names in the NFL business, even if he doesn't have a team.

Given the polarizing nature of his protest, and the death threats Kaepernick said he subsequently received, he could do without his personal contact details, including his cellphone number and physical address, being leaked.

But that's what has happened, in a data leak from the website of the NFL Players Association that affects as many as 1,135 football players. And hackers may now have access to all that information, a security expert warned Tuesday. News of the leak came from Bob Diachenko, from cybersecurity company Kromtech Security. He told late last week that he'd come across an open Elasticsearch database sitting on a server for NFLPA.com.

Thanks to a misconfiguration, all the data inside was accessible to anyone who knew the right link, he said. Diachenko warned the database was already compromised when he found it, with a ransom note left inside in February this year.

Ostensibly, hackers had found the database, attempted to lock it up and demand payment to open it. That ransom note contained the threat that hackers would release information from the database to the public unless 0.1 bitcoins (worth approximately $428) was sent to their wallet. It's unclear if the ransomware attempt was successful; the bitcoin wallet had not received any funds at the time of publication. Similar attacks on Elasticsearch databases occurred earlier this year, according to forum posts.

The NFL Players Association didn't respond to repeated requests for comment. The body did, however, send alerts to agents Monday, noting that the organization had learned of a security hole from a European company (in this case Kromtech) but it had swiftly secured the data. Diachenko confirmed the database was secured on September 29, not long after his disclosure, though he'd not received any contact from NFLPA staff.

"We have worked with cybersecurity experts at Microsoft and our database consultant to determine the extent of the improper access. We are confident that it was limited to a two-hour period last week," the NFLPA wrote in its email, which was passed by an agent who asked to remain anonymous. The message confirmed players' home addresses, mobile numbers, email addresses, colleges, dates of birth and agent fees were included in the exposed data.

"We want to emphasize that no information about you or your player's Social Security Number or finances was in the data. Also, we are directly informing all players involved," the email noted. "In addition to our work with Microsoft, we are engaging an independent firm to do a full review of all of our cybersecurity measures."

While there are around 1,200 players included in the leak, it appears most were either currently or recently free agents, like Kaepernick (his representation didn't respond to a request for comment). Other names on the list were former Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III and ex-New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis.

Not all current and former NFL players who used the NFLPA site were affected, a fact that gave Adam Seifer, founder of Premier Athlete Advisors LLC and a certified agent, some relief. Worries remained, however. "As an agent who is also a licensed attorney and as such is entrusted with protected information on a daily basis, I am always concerned about my clients' rights to privacy and confidentiality," he added. "So a breach of this nature is clearly concerning to me."


Download SafeUM — communicate privately, without advertising and spam.

Tags:
information leaks
Source:
Forbes
1562
Other NEWS
3 Jul 2020 safeum news imgage An encrypted messaging service has been infiltrated by police
4 May 2020 safeum news imgage Two-Factor Authentication ​What Is It and Why You Should Use It
12 Dec 2019 safeum news imgage Encryption is under threat - this is how it affects you
4 Nov 2019 safeum news imgage Should Big Decisions Be Based on Data or Your Intuition?
7 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage VPNFilter malware infecting 500,000 devices is worse than we thought
4 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Hackers target Booking.com in criminal bid to steal hundreds of thousands from customers
1 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Operator of World's Top Internet Hub Sues German Spy Agency
30 May 2018 safeum news imgage US says North Korea behind malware attacks
29 May 2018 safeum news imgage Facebook and Google targeted as first GDPR complaints filed
25 May 2018 safeum news imgage A new reason to not buy these cheap Android devices
24 May 2018 safeum news imgage Flaws in smart pet devices, apps could come back to bite owners
23 May 2018 safeum news imgage Google sued for 'clandestine tracking' of 4.4m UK iPhone users' browsing data
21 May 2018 safeum news imgage LocationSmart reportedly leaked phone location data onto the web
18 May 2018 safeum news imgage The SEC created its own scammy ICO to teach investors a lesson
17 May 2018 safeum news imgage Thieves suck millions out of Mexican banks in transfer heist
All news
SafeUM
Confidential Terms of Use Our technologies Company
Follow us
Download
SafeUM © Safe Universal Messenger

Axarhöfði 14,
110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015