Cyber experts' warning as new AI system to help with Champions League draw

Cyber insurance expert Richard Hodson has said that Uefa could have “put a target” on its back following changes to the Champions League draw.

The draw will see the top four teams from last year’s Premier League season learn who they will face in the beginning stages of the European competition.

It will be carried out with artificial intelligence (AI) assistance this year due to the competition now having a more complex format.

While all 36 teams will be manually drawn, automated software will randomly decide their opponents, with each team now playing eight different opponents rather than the traditional four at home and four away.

Essentially, it will draw eight opponents across four pots and decide which fixtures are home and away.

English company AE Live has developed the automated draw software and stressed that extra security was in place to guard against cyber attacks.

Hodson said that the system would have been tested at all levels ahead of the draw later today.

“I definitely think that moving anything digitally does put a target on your back,” Hodson, who is the business development director at Onda, told Insurance Times.

“You do have a different set of risks associated with doing things digitally.

“Anytime you go and do something digitally, you are creating an opportunity for someone who wants to go in.”

Justin Tivey, partner in DAC Beachcroft’s data, privacy and cyber team, added: “Whether hackers are politically or financially motivated, they are going to see a high profile event relying on IT systems as a tempting target to cause disruption or seek a ransom to stop any interference.

”In reality, these attacks are rarely spontaneous and it takes some time to carry out a high level system compromise. Fortunately, there are many steps organisations can take to safeguard IT systems in advance and we would expect those behind a high profile event to be well aware of the risks and to have taken precautions to minimise them.”

Response

The draw will take place at 5pm today (29 August 2024).

Ahead of this, David Gill, chief technology officer at AE Live, was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying: ”We’re taking cyber security incredibly seriously.

“Clearly this is a sensitive issue. I’m reluctant to go into details about what we’re doing but I can assure you we have taken all steps we can to make sure this is as safe and secure as possible.”

Uefa deputy general secretary Giorgio Marchetti, meanwhile, told Sky News: “The response of the system will happen in a few seconds so there is no possibility for anyone to intervene.

“Uefa has never been made part of the code developed by AE Live.

“The only parties who know the code are AE Live and (auditors) Ernst & Young (EY).”