Cyber Intelligence Insights

A new cyber insights report from CyberCX has found that the global sporting sector faces an increasingly hazardous cyber threat landscape as a broad range of threat actors demonstrate intent and capability to target sporting organisations and major events, with Australia becoming an increasingly attractive target.

The report reveals that there are a range of drivers for cyber threats in sport, including:

• Economic drivers – Cyber extortion groups perceive sporting bodies to be more likely to pay ransoms to recover from operational disruptions.
• Socio-political drivers – International profile and media attention makes sporting events attractive targets for advancing ideological and political issues, while association with prominent third-party brands and sponsors can attract controversy and political attention.
• Geopolitical drivers – Sport is strongly associated with national identity and culture, increasing motivations for cyber espionage and influence campaigns. 
• Technology and organisational drivers – Rapid scale up of staffing and infrastructure for sporting events can introduce complexity and vulnerability into processes and systems, while third-party ticketing providers and broadcast partners introduce supply chain risk.