SHOWJUMPING Ireland (SJI) was the victim of a cyber attack in October, with the incident being investigated by gardaí, cyber security and data protection authorities.

Ronan Corrigan, chairman of SJI’s governance and finance committee, said they were notified of the attack on October 23rd by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

The attack is understood to have occurred more than a week earlier, with the NCSC first informing Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) that it was potentially the victim of the attack.

The NCSC then carried out further investigations and identified Showjumping Ireland as the target.

Mr Corrigan said a thorough investigation was launched after SJI was notified and a team of data protection and cyber security specialists was working with them.

He could not say whether any personal data had been breached until after an assessment by the Data Protection Commission was completed.

Anyone whose data may have been compromised will then be notified by SJI, which holds data from its 8,000 members.

Details of the cyber attack were first posted on the social media platform X on October 16th and it is believed to have been conducted by RansomHub, an international cyber crime gang.

HSI acknowledged being contacted by the NCSC on the matter.

“In response to information provided by the NCSC from posts on X and information on the dark web, the NCSC informed HSI that it was potentially the alleged victim of cyber-attack in October,” HSI said in a statement.

“HSI activated its IT crisis response plan and worked closely with external agencies, including the National Cyber Security Centre, to thoroughly investigate this matter.

“At the end of this detailed investigation, it was clear that HSI’s systems were secure and had not been compromised in any way.

“HSI was never contacted by any threat actors, also known as hackers, seeking a ransom from HSI.As there had been no data breach at HSI, there was no requirement for HSI to contact any other parties in relation to this matter.”