The F1 governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, has been hit by hackers who have gained access to sensitive data following a cyber attack.

The incident, disclosed by the FIA days before last weekend's 2024 British Grand Prix which was won by Lewis Hamilton at the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire, saw several FIA employee’s email accounts accessed through phishing emails, which subsequently led to unauthorised access to personal data shared within employee emails.

In a statement, the FIA said: “Recent incidents pursuant to phishing attacks has led to the unauthorised access to personal data contained in two email accounts belonging to the FIA.

“The FIA took all actions to rectify the issues, notably in cutting the illegitimate accesses in a very short time, once it became aware of the incidents and notified the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (the French data protection regulator), and the Préposé Fédéral à la Protection des Données et à la Transparence (the Swiss data protection regulator).”

The FIA said it regrets any concern caused to the affected individuals, adding: “We take our data protection and information security obligations very seriously and continuously review our systems to ensure they are robust, in the context of evolving cyber criminality. The FIA has put additional security measures in place to protect against any future attacks.”

Image courtesy Charles-Emmanuel Lambert

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