Kieran Maguire: West Ham fighting off cyber ‘hackers’ as new deal confirmed
West Ham are protecting themselves and their commercially sensitive data from cyber hacks with their latest partnership.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the Hammers’ commercial tie-in with Acronis.
The deal with the Switzerland-Singapore-based “global leader in cyber protection” was announced on Monday (28 March).
The East London side will transfer their cyber protection operations to Acronis as part of the partnership.
West Ham have 30 commercial partners and suppliers across various sectors and trousered £19.4million in commercial income in 2020-21.
And Maguire explained that this latest partnership will give the Irons both a commercial boost and an extra layer of security on a strategic level.
“Protection is really critical,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“We are seeing increasing attempts of hacking at football clubs. West Ham are almost a £200m-a-year business and they have got to protect themselves.
Some of the data the club holds is also very commercially sensitive, so I think this is a smart deal for the club on two fronts.
“You get the commercial lift and also the strategic protection from hacks. So, all in all, I think it’s the type of deal we’re going to see more of in future.”
West Ham have also recently embarked on a deal with artificial intelligence specialists Fetch.ai.
The Irons, who are 7th in the Premier League with eight games remaining, face Everton on Sunday (3 April).
In other news, West Ham tipped for ‘£100m’ spending spree after Declan Rice update