Football Leaks kept being shut down by the Portuguese law enforcement until the site decided to go underground. Instead of publishing the data themselves, Football Leaks partnered with different organizations like Der Spigel and the European Investigative Collaborations to publish the information they were getting. At the same time, these two organizations were partnering with journalists to spread the information even further. The data breached by Football Leaks is the biggest in the history of sports, releasing over 18 million documents in only one year and 70 million documents until September 2018. It constitutes over 3.4 terabytes of data that includes presentations, contracts, emails and more. Although data breaches are not new in the digital era, the amount of information breached by this site surpasses many others, especially when considering the targets of the data that was hacked.
The man behind it all
The private information of whistleblowers – those who inform and release information on alleged illegal activities- was obtained by hacking the private accounts of many predominant people in the field. It was later said by Rui Pinto, the a 30-year-old Portuguese man who allegedly is behind the whole scheme, that the information was obtained thanks to sources who are directly involved in the world of football, even if these sources are not aware of their actions. This, and the fact that Pinto has no real connection to anyone in the European sports world, proves that the information was obtain via hacking and accessing private information without permission.
Pinto was arrested on January 16, 2018 in Hungary and might be extradited to Portugal for extortion and violation of privacy. If he remains in Hungary, he will be protected under the laws that give immunity to whistleblowers. The exact reason that drove Pinto to commit these crimes is still unknown, but it has been said that even if he is a football fan himself, he felt that there was corruption within the professional sport world which he wanted to expose. In many cases, Pinto and Football Leaks team reached out to the organizations which they hacked to ask for money in exchange of their silence, adding corruption to the list of illegal activities this site committed.
To make things worse, when Pinto was arrested he refused to hand in his computer to the Policia Juiciaria of Portugal, arguing an overreach of his privacy and giving the police another reason to suspect him. His base is that he is only being persecuted for the data obtained in 2015, and everything after this time should not be considered for his extradition. The suspicion remains if the information he has counts as libel and defamation since it publishes false information that damages the person’s prestige, or which lower the respect or confidence the sports community will have once they read the information. Furthermore, the evidence showing that there are pieces of information that Football Leaks didn’t release raises the question whether the data is real or not.
Who did it affect?
Not only is the information obtained illegally by hacking private information, but it is also taken out of proportion and context by those who committed the breach. These people have the power to manipulate and omit important data in order to secure a convenient of information. There have been cases in which the legitimacy of the data could not be proven.
Football Leaks has released information regarding Cristiano Ronaldo and the alleged rape of Kathryn Mayorga in Las Vegas. The case was closed and re-opened after the information was breached and published in Der Spigel. Cristiano said that the data stolen was manipulated and some of it was hidden to make him look bad, something that hackers are known to do.
Affected by the same type of breach was David Beckham and Tevfik Arif from the Doyen Group. Beckham was accused of stealing money from UNICEF and abusing his privileges as an ambassador of the brand, which was later proven false by UNICEF itself. As for Tevfik Arif, his business Doyen Group and his family, data stolen was used to extort members of Doyen Group into paying Football Leaks in exchange for silence. Later on, the information was proven to be false. These were not the only cases in which data hackers, especially those on Football Leaks, extorted money to avoid the publication of the information or in which the data affects the image of public figures in football.
The credibility of data breaches
The site remains as a non-credible source due to its status of data imbreachment. As many other cases, when breach of data happens, millions of people are affected. Many popular cases like Equifax, Target and Uber have been on the news, raising furious public concern when regarding breaches of personal information.
Equifax was one of the biggest and most popular data breaches, affecting over 150 million people. Other companies like Yahoo, Uber and Target has also suffered data breach attacks in which the private information of its clients and users have been released and sold to other companies.
Many people still question the legitimacy of the breaches and are constantly looking for ways to take secure measures and proof that the data released is correct. As for Football Leaks, the information is still not proven to be correct and it has been labeled as a site whose mere purpose is to damage the image of public figures and known people who are involved in predominant football teams.
Unfortunately, the release of information – true or not – will continue to tarnish the reputation of David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Tevfik Ariv of Doyen Group regardless of the credibility of the site.
Written by Kostya Abaev
Константин Абаев - KostyaAbaev@yandex.com
Константин Абаев - KostyaAbaev@yandex.com
