Coming off their win against the San Francisco 49ers and capping a three-game winning streak that places them at number one in the AFC, the Kansas City Chiefs also scored a win with the number one defense in the National Football League (NFL) when it comes to cybersecurity, according to Panoray’s recent study.
Researchers performed a series of tests simulating a hacker looking to uncover cybersecurity gaps and digital assets on NFL team websites to find out if there would be a correlation between how teams played on the field and how their websites withstood cyberattacks.
The teams judged on their SSL cybersecurity postures, mail servers, and web servers, all of which the Chiefs scored in the top five with the exception of web server rating.
Unsurprisingly there was little correlation between the firm’s cybersecurity ratings and the teams NFL standings - the Chiefs ranked number one in cybersecurity but number 10 in the NFL while the New York Jets ranked second in cybersecurity but 27th in the NFL. The Miami Dolphins scored the fourth position in cybersecurity and sixth in the NFL. And the Pittsburgh Steelers, showing a closer correlation, ranked fifth in cybersecurity and fourth in the league.
Researchers did however notice correlations between a team’s cybersecurity and their revenue, size or digital assets and found that the most secure teams had less digital assets to attack. Researchers also found that teams with a good SSL cyber posture ranked high on the list for the most interceptions during the 2017 season.
Unlike in the NFL draft where the worst teams get their first pick of the draft, there is no reward for poor cyber defenses so researchers didn't release their findings on which teams faired worst as it could invite threat actors, researchers did however say the top five teams with the most improved cybersecurity compared to their NFL standings where the New York Jets, New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, Washington Redskins, and the Cincinnati Bengals.
