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Hackers access Verstappen's personal data in Formula One breach / Photo: © AFP
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Hackers access Verstappen's personal data in Formula One breach
Formula One's ruling body on Thursday confirmed it had suffered a cyber security breach in which personal details of drivers including four-time world champion Max Verstappen were exposed by hackers.
In a statement issued at the Mexico City Grand Prix, the International Motoring Federation (FIA) said the incident had taken place "over the summer" and steps had been taken to secure the data.
The breach related to the FIA Driver Categorisation website in which the hackers were able to find information including passport numbers and personal contact details for nearly 7,000 drivers.
"Immediate steps were taken to secure drivers' data and the FIA reported this issue to the applicable data protection authorities in accordance with the FIA's obligations," said the statement.
"It has also notified the small number of drivers impacted by this issue. No other FIA digital platforms were impacted in this incident.
"The FIA has invested extensively in cyber security and resilience measures across its digital estate. It has put world-class data security measures in place to protect all its stakeholders and implements a policy of security-by-design in all new digital initiatives," it added.
The incident was made public by security researcher Ian Carroll on Wednesday.
He explained he and two colleagues had accessed the confidential information in June after their request to become an administrator for the website was accepted.
They were able to access Verstappen's CV, his super-licence, passport and other data.
"We stopped testing after seeing that it was possible to access Max Verstappen's passport, resume, licence, password hash and PII (personally identifiable information)," said Carroll, according to Crash.net.
"This data could be accessed for all F1 drivers with a categorisation, alongside sensitive information of internal FIA operations. We did not access any passports or sensitive information and all data has been deleted," he added.
The incident proved to be embarrassing for the ruling body of global motorsport, resulting in taking the website offline on June 3 before a "comprehensive" repair was completed a week later.
Verstappen, who is taking part in this weekend's Grand Prix and challenging for his fifth world title, has not made any public comment on the breach of his personal data, but was expected to talk to reporters later on Thursday.
E. Carvalho--JDB
