FBI, NCAA Warn Hackers Are Targeting College Athletes’ Private Photos
Hackers are targeting college athletes’ accounts to steal intimate photos, prompting a new FBI and NCAA initiative focused on prevention and support. The post FBI, NCAA Warn Hackers Are Targeting College Athletes’ Private Photos appeared first on TechRepublic .
Computer hackers are targeting the online accounts of college athletes with the goal of stealing private and intimate images. In response, the FBI and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) have established a coordinated effort to prevent and support victims of this cyber-enabled sexual exploitation. The criminals gain unauthorized access to accounts through various methods, including phishing, password and PIN theft, and deceptive social media customer service inquiries.
By exploiting the athletes' extensive social media presence and name, image, and likeness deals, the criminals can leverage the stolen content for financial gain, harassment, and stalking.
Attackers may impersonate trusted brands or customer support teams to create a sense of urgency or demand password resets, a common tactic in phishing schemes. In a recent case, former University of Michigan football coach Matthew Weiss was indicted on computer-access and identity-theft charges for allegedly stealing data from athlete databases at over 100 colleges and universities.
Weiss then used his illicitly acquired information to breach the social media, email, and cloud storage accounts of thousands of athletes, students, and alumni, downloading private photos and videos.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advises athletes to utilize strong, unique passwords, password managers, multifactor authentication, and heightened suspicion of unsolicited account recovery messages. If an account is compromised, the athlete should immediately change their credentials, review active sessions and recovery settings, and follow the platform's official account recovery process.
The FBI warns victims of sextortion or suspicious online approaches to preserve relevant messages, block and report the perpetrators, and seek assistance rather than complying with threats. Compromised social media accounts can also be used to impersonate others, exposing the victim's private information and providing the attacker with a trusted identity to target teammates, staff, or followers.
Athletics departments and campus IT teams should integrate these tactics into security training, particularly for athletes managing high-profile social media accounts or NIL activity. If a victim suspects cybercrime or sextortion, they should report the incident to the FBI and preserve evidence before deleting any messages or compromised content.
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