FuboTV outage during World Cup semifinal was caused by cyberattack

Legions of angry football fans unable to watch the World Cup semifinal on FuboTV on Wednesday at least now have an answer as to what happened: a cyberattack knocked out access to the platform. 

The streaming television service, which is known for its sport packages, released a “heartfelt apology” on Thursday to affected viewers, who appear to have been locked out of their accounts throughout the highly anticipated match between France and Morocco.

“While service was restored later that evening, I felt it’s important to let you know that yesterday’s incident was not related to any bandwidth issues on Fubo’s part, instead we were the target of a criminal cyber attack,” Co-founder and CEO David Gandler wrote in a post on FuboTV’s website. 

Apologies to customers who are having issues with the France vs Morocco game. We are addressing the issue. Please note you can stream this game directly on FOX as well for free: https://t.co/AYBr6WO3nO

— fuboTV (@fuboTV) December 14, 2022

At 9:20 a.m., the company first posted a notice saying it was investigating an issue related to creating new accounts or logging in to existing ones. Throughout the day, they published updates saying they were working to resolve the issue, until midnight, when they acknowledged that some users were still unable to connect.

Anger on social media throughout the match was palpable, with people on Twitter expressing anger that they had subscribed to the service explicitly for the World Cup. Packages range from $70 to $100 per month.  

FuboTV’s Gandler said the company had notified law enforcement, enlisted the help of Mandiant and was working to ensure the breach was fully contained. The statement did not mention if there was any evidence of a leak of customer data.

“Our investigation is at an early stage, but we are committed to transparency regarding this incident,” he said.