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6 CYBERSECURITY HEADACHES SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT6
CYBERSECURITY HEADACHES SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT

Leaders in professional athletics lament the realities and risks of growth in
connected stadium environments, social networks, and legalized gambling.

Jeffrey Schwartz, Contributing Writer

September 24, 2024

4 Min Read
Source: Robert Landau via Alamy Stock Photo


Professional sporting events have long been prime targets for violent attacks
and terrorism, given their vast audiences. In recent years, these events have
become targets of cyberattacks as adversaries exploit venue operations to
disrupt events, abuse payment systems for fraud, breach networks to steal data,
and take advantage of how athletes interact with fans.

While game time is pivotal, there are many other vulnerabilities to which sports
franchise operators and event organizers must apply resources, including a
growing and increasingly fragmented ecosystem of stakeholders like broadcast and
streaming partners, ticket distributors, and legalized gambling platforms.



"We've done pretty well so far," said Betsy Cooper, director of the Aspen
Institute tech policy hub, during a panel at the 2024 Aspen Cyber Summit in
Washington, DC. Despite the expanded threat, operators of major franchises,
leagues, and international events (such as the Olympic games in Paris) believe
their proactiveness has prevented devastating events that other industries have
faced.




1. ATHLETES NEED MORE TRAINING

Athletes are increasingly relying on social media and technology platforms to
engage with fans and develop their brand. "I represent a lot of athletes, and a
lot of them depend heavily on social media to build their brand and build their
audience," Jaia Thomas — founder of Diverse Representation, a group of African
American agents, attorneys, managers, PR reps, and financial advisors for
athletes and entertainers — said during the panel discussion. "A lot of mistakes
happen along the way, and they're not always the most tech-savvy people."



These athletes are also quite young and may be unaware that using these
platforms exposes them to potential ransomware attacks or increased risks of
being doxxed. "You're talking about kids, for the most part, that make up these
teams, and the education piece needs to be strengthened," Eric Tysarczyk, senior
vice president of the National Hockey League, said on the panel.


2. EVENT ATTENDEES ARE VULNERABLE

Now that most events only accept e-tickets, almost all attendees have phones
with them. The NHL says fans need to take precautions with their mobile devices.



"Imagine if everyone that was in that arena is walking around with all their
personal data taped to their back on a piece of paper, and how attractive that
arena would be to a malicious actor to get in and just start cultivating all
that data," Tysarczyk said.


3. PARTNERSHIPS ARE CRITICAL FOR MAJOR EVENTS

Reynold Hoover, the CEO of Los Angeles 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games, told
panel attendees that one of the reasons there were no disruptive cyberattacks
during the Summer Olympics in Paris was due to information sharing across law
enforcement and partners. The most notable activity leading up to the games was
influence campaigns waged by Russian threat actors. "The Russians were very
active in Paris, trying to disrupt," said Hoover, a former Army and National
Guard lieutenant general with a background in military intelligence.

The Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028 is expected to draw as many as 15 million
visitors, 15,000 athletes, and 25,000 broadcasters across 800 different sporting
events. Hoover said the committee is preparing for threat actors ranging from
"goobers in their basements trying to do something stupid, all the way to
nation-state actors."

The Los Angeles 2028 committee has partnered with the Department of Homeland
Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Federal
Communications Commission, among other US agencies.



"We cannot do it alone," Hoover said. "It requires a public-private partnership
and open and honest information sharing."


4. NEW STREAMING MODELS CREATE NEW CHALLENGES

As all the major leagues expand their broadcast distribution rights to streaming
providers, they can reach new audiences and gain new revenues. However, an
attack that even briefly interrupts a broadcast could be costly in terms of lost
advertising revenue, Tysarczyk said. "We're putting a lot of faith in those
third-party operating techniques and what their cyber protections are," he said.


5. LEGAL SPORTS BETTING PUTS PREMIUM ON INSIDE DATA

Further, now that sports gambling is now legal in 38 US states, including
Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, stealing data is more lucrative for threat
actors than ever. Non-public information, including health records and other
proprietary statistics, is especially valuable. "[It's] the data that people use
to develop trends and see where the wagers go and things like that," Tysarczyk
said.


6. EXPANDED PARTNERSHIPS REQUIRE ADVANCED DATA PROTECTION

A broader ecosystem that shares increasing amounts of data needs to ensure that
information is air-gapped, which was the focus in Paris this summer, Hoover
said. "It really requires a partnership effort, and it was an all-hands-on-deck
effort in Paris to defend the networks," he said. "It's a closed network, and so
we are very concerned about the integrity of the sport, the safety of our
athletes, and the safety of our fans that attend, and making sure that we can
protect the data and keep that inbound and the right people are getting the
right data."




ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeffrey Schwartz, Contributing Writer



Jeffrey Schwartz is a journalist who has covered information security and all
forms of business and enterprise IT, including client computing, data center and
cloud infrastructure, and application development for more than 30 years. Jeff
is a regular contributor to Channel Futures. Previously, he was editor-in-chief
of Redmond magazine and contributed to its sister titles Redmond Channel
Partner, Application Development Trends, and Virtualization Review. Earlier, he
held editorial roles with CommunicationsWeek, InternetWeek, and VARBusiness.
Jeff is based in the New York City suburb of Long Island.

See more from Jeffrey Schwartz, Contributing Writer
Keep up with the latest cybersecurity threats, newly discovered vulnerabilities,
data breach information, and emerging trends. Delivered daily or weekly right to
your email inbox.

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