The governing body of Formula 1 and other major motorsports, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), suffered a cyberattack after employees fell for a phishing scheme.
The attackers used a phishing attack to trick FIA staff into giving up their credentials, and this led to unauthorized access to two FIA email accounts.
As a result of that phishing attack, hackers gained unauthorized access to at least two FIA email accounts containing personal data. The FIA acknowledged the breach, cut off the unauthorized access quickly, and informed the relevant French and Swiss data protection regulators.
However, the article notes there are no public details yet about exactly what data was stolen, who carried out the attack, how many people were affected, or whether any ransom was demanded.
The Symania Way:
Symania replaces traditional passwords (which are exactly what phishing attacks try to steal) with a passwordless login method based on a secret symbol and interactive authentication. Because there’s no password to type, copy, intercept, or transmit, there’s nothing for phishers to steal even if users receive a fraudulent email asking them to log in. This eliminates one of phishing’s main attack vectors.
Traditional MFA methods like SMS or authenticator apps can still be phished (e.g., attackers intercept codes). Symania’s approach attaches authentication to something only the real user knows and does, plus secure device validation — making social engineering attacks much harder.
Even if attackers tricked someone, the secret isn’t reusable outside the secure Symania flow.
Symania also offers Single Sign-On (SSO) integration, so users authenticate once securely and can access all linked services without repeated logins.
