Nothreat, an innovative cybersecurity startup, and Pafos FC, a Cypriot football club, announce a strategic collaboration to enhance cybersecurity within the sports sector. The partners aim to create a replicable and scalable cybersecurity solution that considers the business and IT infrastructure specifics of sports organisations.

The collaboration will focus on critical digital assets of Pafos FC that are particularly vulnerable to cyber threats, including internal infrastructure and ticketing systems. Nothreat will tailor cybersecurity to the football club’s needs and situations to create a robust solution based on cyber clones, traps, monitoring, and incident prevention mechanisms.

Charis Theocharous, General Director of Pafos FC, says: “The pressure that hackers are putting on the sports business is high: clubs are often facing Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, malware infiltrations, and data breaches caused by vulnerabilities in third-party software. These days, cyber threats have become increasingly sophisticated, and we can no longer remain static. At the same time, organisations like ours are not IT companies; we constantly evolve in the sports field and do not have the opportunity to reinstall all our solutions. Therefore, a smooth and easy transition will be crucial for clubs when rethinking their cybersecurity. We are forging a partnership with Nothreat to help protect our club and create a solution that will help other players secure themselves as well.”

Nick Barter, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Nothreat, adds: “We will be working closely with Pafos FC to design and implement new cybersecurity solutions using the latest available platforms. This collaboration will give us priceless data to develop bespoke AI solutions for the sports sector, thereby increasing the security posture for the industry in general. We look forward to supporting the protection of key systems such as ticketing platforms and internal club services, providing maximum resilience for supporters. We want football to continue making people happy and united, not to be a cause of cybersecurity concerns.”

The IT infrastructure of the internal club systems house sensitive data and supports essential communications for its operations. Given the tight match schedule and distributed geography, these services play a crucial role in the club's functioning. Additionally, the ticket sales platform and other web-based systems are points where people directly interact with the club's technological infrastructure. Therefore, cybersecurity affects not only the football club itself but also its supporters and guests – the core of any football club.

To prevent fraud and ensure the security of spectators, Pafos FC will first implement CyberEcho – a system of traps designed to mislead hackers and continuously monitor emerging threats. A core system will also operate internally to prevent attacks originating from both external and internal sources. The firewall's efficiency will improve thanks to custom data gathered from threat monitoring and a continuously self-improving AI. This setup ensures that algorithmic defences prevent breaches in real-time but do not interfere with legitimate customer access, which is often a challenge with standard defence mechanisms.

The common developments of Nothreat and Pafos FC will create the backbone of a comprehensive cyber security solution for sports organisations. This is not only an investment in the security posture of sports clubs but rather a desire to set standards and develop norms for sports cybersecurity worldwide. The partnership seeks to create a scalable and adaptable solution that can be implemented across various sports organisations.