back to article FUMBLE! NFL app drops privacy ball just before Super Bowl Sunday

With Superbowl Sunday approaching, interest in the ritualized combat that is American football is peaking for the year – but fans of the action may be letting hackers slurp their personal details. An analysis of the National Football League phone app by mobile internet biz Wandera has shown that whoever wrote the software didn …

  1. Eddy Ito

    Come on, it's only private consumer data useful for identity theft not really important things like 'did the football exhale in the hours between the sauna and the field?'

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well I suspect the Pats equipment guy they're trying to pin DeflateGate on will be shortly getting far more than their online security investigated ...

  2. Nate Amsden

    really

    what is the purpose for this app needing such info (other than obvious selling that data to advertisers)

    so many mobile apps are rendered useless immediately when I see what sort of stuff they want, I don't even bother to install on my phone (though on a tablet maybe I'd try one since it has no personal data on it). I don't lose any sleep over it though.

  3. ecofeco Silver badge

    That's not a FLAW!

    It's a FEATURE! Just not one that benefits YOU.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The real crime

    So you wanna make an app to monetize the bejabbers out of the fans? You say you want their private data, and you want it NOW?

    Fine, fine, but for sweet mercy's sake, please use crypto! Exploit nice!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The real crime

      >please use crypto! Exploit nice!

      Why bother? The testosterone reeking fools will come regardless.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    yeah

    The now obvious bread and circus nature of American football makes the NFL money grubbing at the expense of its customers not surprising at all and this app is just another example (after all no matter how you treat the proles the blood mob will always come back for more). Corrupt college football has been a no go for me for years but after seeing Wes Welker mentally deteriorate before he was even done playing, cheering for Junior Seau for years and then him killing himself (probably due to head trauma) and with all the other NFL executive and player antics this may well be the first super bowl in my memory I don't watch. Football used to remind me of everyone that was great about America but now it just reminds me of everything that is wrong.

  6. Mark 85
    Facepalm

    <facepalm>

    Who writes these apps, some hacker <or title of choice> who also low-balls to write apps on the side so he and his buddies can have your info? Unencrypted.... OMF<$deity>

    1. Gotno iShit Wantno iShit

      Re: <facepalm>

      Who writes these apps

      The lowest bidder.

      1. Elmer Phud

        Re: <facepalm>

        This is exactly the model the hapless current U.K. government beleive in.

        Apps are supposed to be the new big thing, schoolkids flooded with the idea that the next 14yr old multi-millionaire will come from apps.

        It's bollocks - we've had 'everyone has to have an internet site' and 'everyone has to have a blog' and now 'everyone has to be writing apps'.

        Sieve-ware -- never mind the quality, doesn't it look wonderful!

        FFS!

  7. User McUser
    FAIL

    Usual Public Relations Nonsense

    A spokesman for the NFL told El Reg: "We’ve looked into this vulnerability and it’s been addressed. We continuously monitor and evaluate our systems for any security issues and remediate them as quickly as possible."

    So did the definition of "continually" change from "without cessation" to "only when we're caught" and I missed it? Because if they were *continually* monitoring their systems for security issues then they should have stopped these first-year coding mistakes before the app went live. Or else they knew about the issues and didn't care. In either case, they look like idiots.

    1. admiraljkb
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Usual Public Relations Nonsense

      @User McUser

      Totally agree except for "first-year coding mistakes".

      Shouldn't that be "first week coding mistakes"? :)

      (Paris Hilton because I suspect not even she would make that mistake.)

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