LAST UPDATE | 4 Jul 2019

THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION of Ireland [FAI] has moved to assure all its current and former staff that no employee data was leaked in an attempted cyber attack last month.

The FAI’s computer servers were the subject ‘of external hacking’ on the June Bank Holiday weekend, and the association last night provided a further update on the incident.

In a statement, the FAI said it had written to all its staff confirming there was no evidence of any of their data being extracted from the Abbotstown’s servers, while the association also re-assured customers no breach of payment details took place. 

“The Football Association of Ireland has today written to all staff and former staff to update them on the recent cyber security incident which occurred over the June Bank Holiday weekend at the FAI’s Abbotstown headquarters,” the statement read.

“Upon becoming aware of the incident, the FAI immediately engaged external computer forensic experts to assist with investigating the incident. These investigations found malware on a payroll server but the FAI have assured staff, and former staff, today that there is no evidence of any of their data being extracted from the server.

The forensic computer experts have also informed the FAI that other critical online services, including the FAInet system which handles all player registration details, have not been affected in any way by the incident.

It added: “The FAI have treated this matter very seriously and are focused on closing out this incident and preventing any further security incidents.

“The Association again assures customers that no breach of payment details took place as such data is stored off-site. FAI ticket sales are also processed and paid for via a third party platform.

“The Office of the Data Protection Commission has been notified of the incident as well as our efforts to ensure that no data subjects were adversely impacted.”

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