Soccer and football fans around the world – especially those rooting for France or Morocco – were unable to watch yesterday’s World Cup semifinal on FuboTV. Besides being one of the best streaming services in general, FuboTV is known for its excellent sports coverage which is why many cord cutters choose it in the first place. However, soccer fans might have regretted that decision yesterday when they were unable to watch France vs Morocco in the World Cup semifinal. While bandwidth constraints during an event as big as the World Cup could be a possible reason for the connectivity issues FuboTV customers experienced from 9AM ET all the way into the evening yesterday, the company says a targeted cyberattack launched by cybercriminals is actually to blame.
FuboTV cyberattack
According to a statement put out by FuboTV today, the company’s streaming service was “the target of a criminal cyber attack”. Unfortunately though, FuboTV has yet to provide further details and we don’t yet know if a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack or even a malware infection was responsible. The company’s co-founder and CEO David Gandler did personally apologize to customers in an email for the unexpected outage though. Once the attack was detected, FuboTV immediately took steps to contain the incident while working to restore service to all of its customers as quickly as possible. While soccer fans missed the match between France and Morocco, the service was eventually restored by Wednesday evening. In addition to reporting the incident to law enforcement agencies, FuboTV has enlisted the help of the cybersecurity firm Mandiant to assist in its investigation into the matter. The company is keen to find out which cybercriminals are responsible but for now, its main focus is ensuring “the incident is fully contained and that there is no threat of further disruption for any of our customers”. FuboTV plans to provide an update later on once it and Mandiant have more to share regarding this recent cyberattack.
Should you switch streaming services ahead of the World Cup final?
If you’re one of the FuboTV customers that missed all the action at France vs Morocco yesterday, you may be wondering if something similar could happen during the World Cup final between Argentina and France on Sunday, December 18. While another targeted cyberattack on the same streaming service is highly unlikely, it may be worth considering a few other alternatives so you don’t miss the big game. If you live in the U.S., Fox will be showing the World Cup Final which makes Sling TV your best paid option to watch. Meanwhile in the UK, you can watch the match for free on BBC iPlayer but it will also be shown on ITV. FuboTV is still a great option but it’s always worth having a backup. As for the cybercriminals responsible, we’ll likely find out more once the company and Mandiant finish their investigation.
