The Dutch football association KNVB has been hit by a cyber attack on its IT network at its headquarters in Zeist.

The association is investigating the extent of the damage, but confirmed that personal data of KNVB employees has been stolen.

It is unclear what kind of data was leaked and from how many of the KNVB’s staff of more than 500. The security breach has been reported to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP).

According to KNVB, its ‘primary business operations will not be jeopardised and e-mail systems, for example, have remained unaffected. So football will continue as planned.’

It also addressed the prevalence of cybercrime. ‘Despite our security system, the KNVB has now also fallen victim to this. We are particularly sorry that our employees may have to deal with this.

Unfortunately, we don’t have better news at the moment. We are doing everything we can to limit the problems.’

KNVB employees may, for example, be targeted by fraudsters who use the information to send phishing emails to obtain their login details or obtain money by deception.