collapse collapse

Please donate to help towards the costs of keeping this site going. Thank You.

Recent Topics

Recent Posts

Re: Are you worried? by Ian.
[Today at 05:35:02 PM]


Re: Chelsea 3 Aston Villa 0 Post Match Thread. by Risso
[Today at 05:33:52 PM]


Re: Are you worried? by Demitri_C
[Today at 05:33:40 PM]


Re: GUESS THE GOAL R10: Chelsea v ASTON VILLA, Sunday, 1st December! 🥅 by Louzie0
[Today at 05:33:36 PM]


Re: Are you worried? by Ads
[Today at 05:31:54 PM]


Re: Chelsea 3 Aston Villa 0 Post Match Thread. by Demitri_C
[Today at 05:31:40 PM]


Re: Are you worried? by VillaTim
[Today at 05:31:00 PM]


Re: Are you worried? by PaulWinch again
[Today at 05:30:58 PM]

Follow us on...

Author Topic: Villa possibly hacked?  (Read 4244 times)

Online amfy

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4697
  • Location: L7
  • GM : 17.07.2025
Villa possibly hacked?
« on: May 21, 2024, 10:33:58 PM »
This has come to me via a Villa friend who isn’t on these boards.
I don’t know if people might want to think about changing passwords & stuff?
Not sure what to make of it tbh.

https://cybernews.com/security/aston-villa-fc-security-gaps-expose-fans/

Merge?
« Last Edit: May 21, 2024, 11:04:18 PM by amfy »

Offline purpletrousers

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • Location: Luton / East London
  • GM : 25.04.2025
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2024, 10:36:13 PM »
https://cybernews.com/security/aston-villa-fc-security-gaps-expose-fans/


I’ll try and neaten this post up [wont let me put it as a quote, I give up/ feel free to merge/delete] , but just got this from Amfy, I think via a CDWeebully associate.

Aston Villa’s gates have security gaps: fans exposed
Aston Villa FC

Aston Villa Football Club (AVFC) left a publicly leaking Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 bucket containing the personally identifiable information of 135,770 individuals. The affected fans are vulnerable to spear phishing, social engineering attacks, and identity theft attempts.

On March 13th, 2024, the Cybernews research team discovered a publicly accessible AWS S3 bucket (cloud storage service). The storage likely belongs to Aston Villa Football Club, as it contained 135,770 member records among 5842 exposed CSV files used for storing data.

The exposed personal information contains the following:

Full names
Dates of Birth
Home addresses
Phone numbers
Email addresses
Membership details
Purchase details (date, method of payment, type of membership purchased).
Cybersecurity researchers warn that “the exposure of personally identifiable information presents a series of severe information security implications and risks to the club’s fans.”

The leaking bucket was labeled “prod” in its name, which suggests it could be used to store and manage data used in AVFC’s operational and production environments.

After responsible disclosure, the bucket is no longer public. Cybernews has reached out to AVFC for additional comments, but we have yet to receive a response.

Therefore, it’s unclear what caused the leak or whether other third parties have compromised the bucket.

Founded in 1874, Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. Villa competes in the Premier League, the highest level of the English football league system, and has recently qualified for next season’s Champions League, Europe’s elite competition.

The AVFC official website has 1.1 million monthly visitors, according to Similarweb.

Many risks ahead

For cybercriminals, the data is a treasure trove that may be used for many financially motivated attacks.

The more data crooks can leverage, the more sophisticated social engineering attacks they can orchestrate.

“Attackers could engage in manipulative tactics aimed at persuading unsuspecting individuals to divulge further sensitive information or undertake actions that compromise their security. This may involve impersonating trusted entities to elicit additional personal or financial information,” researchers warn.

Villa fans should beware that the availability of exposed email addresses and phone numbers can be used for spear phishing campaigns specifically designed for each exposed individual.

Cybercriminals may craft deceptive emails, text messages, or calls purporting to originate from legitimate sources. Such scams often seem genuine, and victims unintentionally fall for them. Avoid clicking on dangerous links, downloading attachments, divulging login information, and follow other good cyber hygiene practices.

“Personal safety and security are seriously threatened when the residential address is made public. Doxxing incidents violate a person’s privacy. The consequences are not limited to cyberspace and could involve other illegal activities that are made easier by knowing exactly where the person lives, such as theft, burglary, or physical incursion,” our research team warns.

Encryption adds an additional security layer

For AVFC, the Cybernews research team recommends retrospectively monitoring access logs to assess whether unauthorized actors have accessed the exposed bucket. Of course, the first step is always to secure the S3 bucket to prevent any further unauthorized access.

Even when storage gets compromised, the encryption of sensitive data would protect it from being accessed by unauthorized parties.

“AWS's server-side encryption tools, such KMS or AWS s3-managed keys, should be used to encrypt sensitive data and modify the bucket’s access settings,” our researchers recommend.

The owner should notify the Data Protection Authorities (ICO) if the bucket has been compromised.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2024, 10:43:03 PM by purpletrousers »

Online Somniloquism

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 27938
  • Location: Back in Brum
  • GM : 06.12.2024
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2024, 10:42:05 PM »
That is the trouble with AWS and Azure now. In the old days the data would be on a server with built in access restrictions, but with the cloud based containers and app services, the storage can be left open by the app team to make it easier for applications to talk to it, forgetting that anyone else who stumbles on the IP address could as well.

Could be a big fine though from the ICO if true, especially if the data was accessed as well. Upto £17.5 mil or 4% of turnover.

Offline purpletrousers

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • Location: Luton / East London
  • GM : 25.04.2025
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2024, 10:44:09 PM »
Don’t tell me it’ll hit our FFP as well!!!

Offline Bad English

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 45480
  • Age: 150
  • Location: Pyrénées Catalanes, France
  • I am Perpignan Villa
  • GM : 29.03.2025
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2024, 10:52:06 PM »
Mind the gaps!

Online Rudy Can't Fail

  • Member
  • Posts: 40516
  • Location: In the Shade
    • http://www.heroespredictions.co.uk/pl/
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2024, 11:05:52 PM »
Strange that fans haven't heard anything about this from the club especially as they would have known at least over two months ago. Hopefully it's not a case of too many chiefs and not enough indians.

Offline Legion

  • Moderator
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 58809
  • Age: 53
  • Location: With my son
  • Oh, it must be! And it is! Villa in the lead!
    • Personal Education Services
  • GM : 05.04.2019
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2024, 11:11:38 PM »
Merged.

Online ChicagoLion

  • Member
  • Posts: 24053
  • Location: Chicago
  • Literally
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2024, 11:12:36 PM »
The club could be in serious trouble if they have left people exposed and have failed to notify potential cyber fraud victims

Online pauliewalnuts

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 72996
  • GM : 28.08.2025
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2024, 11:13:07 PM »
That is the trouble with AWS and Azure now. In the old days the data would be on a server with built in access restrictions, but with the cloud based containers and app services, the storage can be left open by the app team to make it easier for applications to talk to it, forgetting that anyone else who stumbles on the IP address could as well.

Could be a big fine though from the ICO if true, especially if the data was accessed as well. Upto £17.5 mil or 4% of turnover.

Not sure I agree with that (well actually, I’m totally sure, I don’t agree with it)  bad security is bad security whether it’s in the cloud or a traditional standalone data centre, and web services have to talk to it, regardless, there’s nothing intrinsically unsafe about data being in the cloud.

It’s still in a data centre.

Knowing what the ip address is also makes no difference - the content running in your browser hits a web service somewhere to be able to do anything. It being on AWS or Azure rather than an independent data centre makes zero difference.

In fact, I’d argue cloud providers probably provide better baked in security in their infrastructure than your average business running its own servers in a dark room at the back of their office somewhere.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2024, 11:17:21 PM by pauliewalnuts »

Offline Dogtanian

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7017
  • Location: The Streets of Rage ( Tamworth )
  • GM : 06.06.2025
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2024, 11:47:27 PM »
Hmmm.

Offline Weedy

  • Member
  • Posts: 599
  • Location: Elmdon Heath
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2024, 12:31:08 AM »
Check here to see if any of your details are 'out there' :-

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Offline Chico Hamilton III

  • Member
  • Posts: 19508
  • Location: South London
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #11 on: May 22, 2024, 08:03:14 AM »
Good job I changed all my online passwords last week from “Athens2024” to “Munich2025”.

Offline Olneythelonely

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7393
  • GM : 03.03.2025
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #12 on: May 22, 2024, 08:04:17 AM »
Check here to see if any of your details are 'out there' :-

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

That’s what a hacker would ask us to do.

Offline Dogtanian

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7017
  • Location: The Streets of Rage ( Tamworth )
  • GM : 06.06.2025
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #13 on: May 22, 2024, 08:43:40 AM »
Has anybody contacted the club?

Online astonvilla82

  • Member
  • Posts: 2588
Re: Villa possibly hacked?
« Reply #14 on: May 22, 2024, 09:40:29 AM »
Check here to see if any of your details are 'out there' :-

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

That’s what a hacker would ask us to do.
nearly fell for it just now

 


SimplePortal 2.3.6 © 2008-2014, SimplePortal