What do the Superbowl and Cybersecurity Have in Common?

Cybersecurity and the Superbowl have a lot more in common than you may think.

Did you know the Superbowl causes a major spike in cybercrime each year? That’s right, consider all of the teams, fans, news outlets, transportation, and vendors that are a part of the Superbowl each year. Not to mention the outpouring of attention on the players. All of those factors contribute to the heightened possibility of cyber attacks.

Take 2020 for example, on Superbowl Sunday and days following, social media accounts of almost half the teams in the NFL were compromised. This included Instagram and Twitter accounts of 15 NFL teams along with the National Football League’s official Twitter account. The group responsible for the attack called themselves OurMine, according to an article by BBC news.

Many of the posts created by the hacking group read things similar to this message: “Hi, we’re back. We are here to show people that everything is hackable.”

Image courtesy of Twitter.

Coming off of the 2020 hack, the NFL hired a Tampa-based cybersecurity firm to keep them better protected online for the 2021 Superbowl. Some of the responsibilities of the cybersecurity firm included; review of vendor’s payment machines at booths, protection of personal information on applications that volunteers are using, and monitoring of social media across the dark web for malicious activity. It’s possible that the NFL will take stronger measures in the coming years, as ransomware attacks are set to increase a whopping 50% in 2022 (Cybernews).

While some may look at the Superbowl as a simple game, the reality is that the NFL is a large business at the end of the day. Cybercriminals look for opportunity and the NFL is bringing in millions of dollars from this major event.

In football, your defense is protecting the offense from scoring by tackling players or causing turnovers. Defense within cybersecurity is protecting you or your business from malicious individuals looking to “score” valuable data or access to your accounts.

Be ready for anything. Your opponent may have a play you weren’t anticipating. This rings true with cybersecurity as well. Hackers are unpredictable, no matter the size or industry of your business, the mediocrity or fame of an individual, hackers are criminals of opportunity. If they want your information they will find a way to get it.

You can’t win a game of football with just one individual. The players are working together as a team. You can’t always protect yourself against cyber criminals alone either. You may need someone to help you identify and resolve cybersecurity threats. That may require the help of a professional cybersecurity team.

Whether your organization is the size of the NFL or a high school football program we know you want to feel secure in your cybersecurity procedures and know that your data is protected. That’s why for over 20 years, we have provided governmental and private organizations with cybersecurity experts to help guide their processes, identify weaknesses, and protect them from cybersecurity threats.

Here’s how we do it: