ArbiterSports , the leading platform used by colleges , high schools and youth sports organizations to manage and pay assignments of sports officials , suffered a malicious hack this past summer , according to several public reports and confirmed by SoccerWire through research of court records in multiple states . The attack reportedly involved over 500,000 accounts and resulted in hackers obtaining “ Account username and password , name , address , date of birth , email address , and Social Security number ” . The company claims they have paid the requested ransom to the attackers and received evidence they subsequently deleted the stolen data . If you referee sports in the United States , odds are you have at some point had an account with ArbiterSports . If so , despite assurances from Arbiter they successfully agreed with their attackers to delete the data stolen in the attack , it is still highly recommended you take immediate action to protect yourself from identity theft and potential financial devastation , should the hack lead to criminals gaining access to your bank accounts . According to a disclosure letter sent to Arbiter ’s users , the breach occurred sometime in the week leading up to July 15 , 2020 , the date which company first noticed the hack . However , this exhaustive list of records published by the Indiana Attorney General ’s office lists the date of the initial breach as June 3 , 2020 . It also reveals that a total of 539,309 accounts were accessed . Multiple filings and notifications confirm the hack resulted in the theft of “ account username and password , name , address , date of birth , email address , and Social Security number ” of the accounts listed . They reportedly were able to identify and contact the unauthorized party , who demanded payment from Arbiter in exchange for the promise to delete the stolen files . According to information provided by Arbiter , they and the hackers eventually reached a ransom agreement , leading to Arbiter ’s they had “ obtained confirmation that the unauthorized party deleted the files . ” Despite the attack being confirmed to have occurred prior to July 15 , and seemingly as far back as June 3 , it was n’t until August 24 that ArbiterSports reported a security breach to multiple states ’ Attorney General ’s offices , via their D.C.-based law firm BakerHostetler . The community of referees effected , however , remain skeptical of the promise of a hacker to actually delete all data , especially given the amount of time elapsed between the breach and the so - called confirmation of deletion . ;