Auckland City Football Club is continuing efforts to regain control of its social media accounts after a recent cyber security breach.
The club, which has a significant following on Instagram and Facebook, reported that its accounts were accessed by unauthorised parties, resulting in the publication of explicit content.
A statement posted on the club’s website confirmed the incident and outlined the response underway. “We are currently working closely with the relevant authorities and cybersecurity experts to investigate and resolve the issue. The safety and integrity of our digital platforms are of utmost importance, and we are taking all necessary steps to restore normal operations,” the club said.
While the inappropriate material has since been removed, Auckland City FC has not yet regained administrative access to its accounts. A spokesperson told RNZ: “We have no admin rights, can’t even delete the page if we wanted to. We are making progress through our cyber security experts, and hopefully will have full control soon, but still a bit to go.”
The spokesperson also noted that unauthorised posts, including recycled legitimate content, continue to appear on the club’s profiles.
The Auckland City FC breach comes amid a broader increase in cyber threats across Australia and New Zealand. A global survey commissioned by Arctic Wolf showed that 85% of organisations in Australia and New Zealand experienced at least one cyber incident in the past year, compared to a global average of 76%.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents in the region reported paying ransom demands to prevent data exposure, and 91% engaged external negotiators. Despite these efforts, fewer than half were able to negotiate a lower ransom.
Despite high confidence among insurance and risk professionals in their organisations’ preparedness for ransomware incidents, research suggests a gap between perceived readiness and actual recovery performance.
According to CrowdStrike’s State of Ransomware Survey, more than half of organisations in Australia and New Zealand considered themselves “very prepared” for ransomware events. However, only 9% managed to restore operations within 24 hours, compared to 35% in the UK. The region was also identified as one of the most frequently targeted globally, with 78% of respondents reporting at least one ransomware attack in the past year.
The survey highlighted a disconnect between leadership confidence and operational capabilities, with three-quarters of respondents noting a gap between board-level optimism and actual response capacity.
