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Hackers steal vital data from Formula One team

Graeme Wearden ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 17 Jul 2001 07:59 BST

Officials at the Benetton Formula One team admitted on Monday that hackers have broken into its computer systems and stolen valuable data.

Jean-Jacques His, technical director of Renault -- which own Benetton -- claimed that someone hacked into the Benetton systems last year when the team were developing this season's car. This forced the team to discard some of their work, in case a rival team had seen the data that had been removed.

The performance of the Benetton team has been relatively disappointing this year, with the team only winning one championship point so far. According to BBC Sport, His is putting some of the blame for this on the hacking attack. "We had to change direction in certain areas of the design, but I am 99 percent certain there is nothing on the engine now that others could have seen. It was a problem for us," His said.

However, it appears that Benetton does not hold out much hope of catching those responsible for the attack. It is more concerned with keeping its current design -- which it believes is powerful enough to make the team much more competitive next year -- secret.

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