Bermuda’s elite triathletes have had sensitive personal information, including medical records, accessed after hackers breached data security at the sport’s governing body World Triathlon.

Tyler Smith, Erica Hawley, Nick Pilgrim and Oliver Hayward have all recently competed in World Triathlon events, while Olympic champion Dame Flora Duffy was also a longtime member.

Among the information stolen was medical data provided by athletes and needed for medical delegates at events (allergies, illnesses, medication).

Member, athlete and entrant records, including entries and results history, was also downloaded, with the breach not confined to athletes as technical official and coach records, including positions, evaluations and certifications were accessed as was national federation and confederation contact details.

Account passwords stored in hashed form, which means that the original password is not retrievable, were also taken but no financial data was accessed in the hack, which according to World Triathlon took place last week.

“An unauthorised external party illegally exploited a security flaw in the reporting tool Metabase and accessed TRI databases,” read a statement from the organisation.

“They repeatedly extracted names, e-mail addresses and postal addresses, including the National Federation contact list.

“On November 6 they copied complete database tables. We identified the breach on November 8 and shut the tool down the same day. A post on a hacking forum on November 7 claimed to offer the data for download.”

World Triathlon has reported the incident to Swiss Police and engaged a cybersecurity firm for a forensic investigation and expert assistance.

Some World Triathlon members have already been the target of phishing attempts, with fraudsters already using lookalike e-mail domains to request payments to new bank accounts.

Athletes and federations have been asked to verify any payment request via phone or direct message with an approved contact and report any suspicious activity.

The Royal Gazette has reached out to athletes affected and the Bermuda Triathlon Association for comment and will update the story as necessary with any response