BHA cyber attack: British Horseracing Authority forced to close office
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) insists that the UK’s schedule of meets will not be affected after hackers launched a cyber attack on the sport’s governing body.
BHA staff have been asked to work from home or remotely after the attack forced the organisation to temporarily shut its London head office, according to reports.
It comes after major high street retailers Marks and Spencer and Co-op were left reeling by cyber attacks in recent weeks.
“We recently identified and began investigating an IT incident,” said a spokesperson for the BHA.
“We are working at pace with external specialists to determine what happened in more detail and safely restore our systems.
“The delivery of racedays has continued as normal and will continue to do so. We have informed our colleagues, core industry stakeholders and law enforcement.”
The cyber attack on the BHA is reported to involve ransomware, which criminals use to restrict users’ access to their data unless they pay to have it unencrypted.
It came late last week ahead of the Derby weekend at Epsom, one of the biggest dates in the British racing calendar.
BHA cyber attack follows M&S and Co-op
The Racing Post reported that the security breach is thought to have only affected internal systems and data, although investigations continue.
The BHA is responsible for the governance, administration and regulation of horse racing in the UK and is headquartered in Holborn in central London.
Racecards at Salisbury, Wolverhampton, Catterick and Fontwell are going ahead as planned, despite the cyber attack.
Marks and Spencer has put the cost of its “highly sophisticated and targeted” ransomware attack over Easter at £300m.
It forced the retailer to suspend online orders and the issue is expected to continue to disrupt business into next month.
Co-op were also hit by an attack which disrupted its supermarket and funeral businesses.