Football Australia investigating 'possible data breach'

Football Australia (FA) said they are investigating a possible data breach following a report in a cybersecurity publication that players' passports, contracts and other personal information may have been leaked online.

The report, published by Cybernews.com on Wednesday, said the soccer governing body had also potentially exposed ticket buyers' personal data and that "human error" was the most likely reason for the leak. "Nevertheless, the mistake represents a critical data exposure incident," it said.

FA said in a statement on Thursday it was aware of the reports of a "possible data breach" and was investigating the matter as a priority.

"Football Australia takes the security of all its stakeholders seriously," the statement said. "We will keep our stakeholders updated as we establish more details."

The report in Cybernews, which describes itself as an independent, online publication which discloses cybersecurity threats, said FA had enabled access to 127 "digital storage containers", including one which was left completely unprotected and contained players' passports and contracts.

It said FA had fixed the issue after being alerted by Cybernews.