FFF victim of massive hack, 1.5 million data “potentially” affected

The French Football Federation was the victim of widespread hacking. Victims’ personal data was put up for sale online.

This is a new major hack, affecting thousands of French people after France Travel and Supplementary Health Insurance. According to BFMTV, exclusive site Zataz confirms, the French Football Federation (FFF) was the victim of a massive data leak.

“On March 22, 2024, the Federation discovered that potentially 1.5 million data from its licensees had been fraudulently collected” the Paris prosecutor’s office clarified to BFMTV.

Relevant personal data are surname, first name, as well as postal address, email address, age and club of football players. However, personal data of professional players is not affected.

“Only data related to license requests for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons is likely to be affected. Passwords, bank details, medical data and identification photographs, however, are not affected,” mentions the site Cybermalveilance in a press release.

The brigade fighting cybercrime (BL2C) of the Paris judicial police was responsible for the investigation.

Risk of Phishing

For now, the identity of the hackers remains unknown, although an account using the pseudonym Chris Fellenberg claimed responsibility on an online forum. Furthermore, the modus operandi of the hack has not been determined.

As with the hacking of millions of Social Security numbers, the main risk for victims is that their personal data is sold to scammers online.

The latter often use this type of personal information (for example linked to sports practice) to personalize scam emails, making them more credible.

“As provided in the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), FFF will personally notify all people affected by this personal data breach. FFF has also filed a complaint and reported the incident to the CNIL,” the cybermalvalence site mentions.

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