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A couple days after the FBI warned that a ransomware group called BlackByte had compromised critical infrastructure in the US, the group hacked servers belonging to the San Francisco 49ers football team and held some of the team’s data for ransom.
Media representatives for the NFL franchise confirmed a security breach to multiple news outlets following a post on BlackByte’s site on the dark web. The site promises victims that, in exchange for big payouts, BlackByte will not leak data. Instead, the bad actors will provide victims with a decryption key that allows the data to be recovered. The recent post made a 379MB file named “2020 Invoices” available for download. The file appeared to show hundreds of billing statements the 49ers had sent partners including AT&T, Pepsi, and the city of Santa Clara, where the 49ers play home games.
A busy three months
In statements provided to the Associated Press, Bleeping Computer, and The Record, franchise representatives said investigators were still assessing the breach.
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