Police arrest man following hack of Ajax football club

INDUSTRY NEWS 2 min read Police arrest man following hack of Ajax football club Graham CLULEY May 29, 2026 Promo Protect all your devices, without slowing them down. Free 30-day trial Dutch police have arrested a 35-year-old man suspected of hacking into the computer systems of Amsterdam football giant Ajax, after the personal data of hundreds of thousands of supporters was put at risk. According to a Dutch police statement, the unnamed suspect was arrested on Tuesday in Buren, on suspicion of repeatedly gaining unauthorised access to Ajax's IT systems. When news of a possible security breach at Ajax first broke earlier this year, the club was keen to play down its scale - acknowledging that an outsider had gained unauthorised access to data, including supporters' email addresses, but suggesting that only a few hundred fans had been affected. However, it quickly emerged that the claim of a "few hundred" potential victims was wide of the mark, as it was reported that the incident could have exposed the personal details of around 300,000 registered Ajax supporters. In short, the number of supporters whose details were exposed was around 1000 times larger than the club's initial estimate. The problem was linked to security weakness in the official Ajax app - used by fans to access their tickets, and allowing an attacker to reportedly view fans' personal details, steal and resell match and season tickets, and even view or alter information about the roughly 500 people banned from attending matches. For that last capability to fall into the hands of unauthorised parties was particularly troubling. It transpired that someone could silently remove individuals from the ban list (which would include those banned due to hooliganism)- or add the names of innocent people to it. As Bart Schermer, the professor of privacy and cybercrime at Leiden University, pointed out, a prospective employer might think twice about hiring someone banned from attending football matches - leading to the possibility that the vulnerability in Ajax's app could be weaponised against individuals. Ajax says that it has worked with external experts to patch the vulnerabilities, and has strengthened its security. Which is obviously good news, but little relief for those whose data might have already been accessed. It is easy to imagine that just a database of email addresses linked to football fans could be attractive to scammers who might launch phishing attacks posing as ticket offers, refunds, or special promotions to supporters. TAGS industry news AUTHOR Graham CLULEY Graham Cluley is an award-winning security blogger, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s. View all posts RIGHT NOW TOP POSTS SCAM HOW TO Scammer phone number lookup. How to check if a phone number is a scam April 19, 2024 INDUSTRY NEWS How any Instagram account could be hacked in less than 10 minutes July 15, 2019 SCAM DIGITAL PRIVACY HOW TO How scammers gain access and hack your WhatsApp account and what you can do to protect yourself May 01, 2024 INDUSTRY NEWS DATA BREACH Rockstar Games confirms breach after ShinyHunters leaks stolen analytics data April 14, 2026 FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE INDUSTRY NEWS Police arrest man following hack of Ajax football club Graham CLULEY May 29, 2026 2 min read INDUSTRY NEWS MyPillow listed on ransomware gang's leak site, but denies it has been breached Graham CLULEY May 28, 2026 2 min read INDUSTRY NEWS FBI warns criminals impersonating IT support to breach law firms Silviu STAHIE May 28, 2026 3 min read BOOKMARKS You have no bookmarks yet. Tap to read it later.