LONDON: Medical data from some of the world’s leading athletes has been posted to the web and the World Anti-Doping Agency says Russians are to blame. Even the hackers seem to agree, adopting the name “Fancy Bears” - a moniker long associated with the Kremlin’s electronic espionage operations.
But as cybersecurity experts pore over the hackers’ digital trail, they’re up against a familiar problem. The evidence has been packed with possible red herrings - including registry data pointing to France, Korean characters in the hackers’ code and a server based in California. “Anybody can say they are anyone and it’s hard to disprove,” said Jeffrey Carr, the chief executive of consulting firm Taia Global and something of a professional skeptic when it comes to claims of state-backed hacking.
Many others in the cybersecurity industry see the WADA hack as a straightforward act of Russian revenge. IOC President Thomas Bach said Friday he will ask Russian authorities for help to stop the hackers. Bach said the IOC will help WADA “including communicating with Russia, to underline the seriousness of the issue and request all possible assistance to stop the hackers.”
“This is an unacceptable and outrageous breach of medical confidentiality that attempts to smear innocent athletes who have not committed any doping offense,” said Bach. What’s known is that it was only days after scores of Russian athletes were banned from the Olympic Games that suspicious looking emails began circulating . Purporting to come from WADA itself, the booby trapped messages were aimed at harvesting passwords to a sensitive database of drug information about athletes worldwide. Among other things, the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System carries information about which top athletes use otherwise-banned substances for medical reasons - prize information for a spurned Olympic competitor seeking to embarrass its rivals.
{{/usCountry}}“This is an unacceptable and outrageous breach of medical confidentiality that attempts to smear innocent athletes who have not committed any doping offense,” said Bach. What’s known is that it was only days after scores of Russian athletes were banned from the Olympic Games that suspicious looking emails began circulating . Purporting to come from WADA itself, the booby trapped messages were aimed at harvesting passwords to a sensitive database of drug information about athletes worldwide. Among other things, the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System carries information about which top athletes use otherwise-banned substances for medical reasons - prize information for a spurned Olympic competitor seeking to embarrass its rivals.
{{/usCountry}}On September 1 someone registered a website titled “Fancy Bears’ Hack Team.” A few days later, a Twitter account materialised carrying a similar name. Just after midnight Moscow time on September 13, the Fancy Bears Twitter account came alive, broadcasting the drugs being taken by gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles, seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and other US Olympians. It followed up Thursday with similar information about the medication used by British cyclists Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, among many others.