The UK’s cyber security agency is assisting Manchester United over a cyber attack earlier this month which has left the football club unable to yet fully restore its computer systems.
The Premier League club confirmed the hacking on November 20 and said it was not “aware of any breach of personal data associated with our fans and customers”.
As of Thursday night, club staff still did not have access to email, and some other functions were also unavailable.
Earlier this month, the NCSC’s annual review showed the organisation defended the UK from more than 700 cyber attacks over the last year.
It noted a rise in the number of ransomware attacks – where attackers lock access to data until a ransom is paid – being deployed.
The NCSC said it dealt with more than three times as many ransomware incidents compared with last year and noted that criminals were changing their approach during such attacks to increasingly threaten to leak information publicly unless payment is made.
United’s network has been affected by ransomware, the Daily Mail reported.
The NCSC’s report also revealed it had scanned more than one million IP addresses linked to the NHS for vulnerabilities as part of efforts to protect the health service.
Out of 723 cyber incidents between September 2019 and the end of August this year handled by the agency, 194 were directly linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
