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Sports Doping Agency Wada Says Hackers Lifted Olympic Athletes' Medical Records
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FeedSource: [TheRegister] collected from rss-bot logs
Time: 2016-09-14 01:04:10 UTC
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/14/sports_doping_agency_wada_says_hackers_lifted_olympic_athletes_medical_records/ [theregister.co.uk] using UTF-8 encoding.
Title: Sports Doping Agency Wada Says Hackers Lifted Olympic Athletes' Medical Records
2 stories
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Sports Doping Agency Wada Says Hackers Lifted Olympic Athletes' Medical Records
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story [theregister.co.uk]:
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has confirmed that its Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) database has been accessed by a "Russian cyber espionage group operator by the name of Tsar Team (APT28), also known as Fancy Bear."
The breach was made possible by spear phishing of an "International Olympic Committee (IOC)-created account for the Rio 2016 Games" that saw the account-holder's passwords obtained.
WADA should have known about Olympic-related phishing: El Reg warned about it [theregister.co.uk] in the days before the games!
"The group accessed athlete data," WADA says, "including confidential medical data - such as Therapeutic Use Exemptions delivered by International Sports Federations (IFs) and National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs) - related to the Rio Games; and, subsequently released some of the data in the public domain, accompanied by the threat that they will release more."
Fancy Bear is though to also go by the names APT 28 and Tsar Team. Whatever the group's name, the site [fancybear.net] [please think before visiting site run by hackers - Ed] on which it has posted a rationale for its attack claims no national affiliation. The Russian link comes from WADA director general Olivier Niggli, so says the agency "has been informed by law enforcement authorities that these attacks are originating out of Russia."
The Russian link matters because ahead of the Rio games the nation was the subject of accusations of systematic, government-sponsored doping. Some Russian athletes were even banned from competition. Others were roundly booed during the games.
Niggli says "these criminal acts are greatly compromising the effort by the global anti-doping community to re-establish trust in Russia further to the outcomes of the Agency's independent McLaren Investigation Report," Niggli continued.
Fancy Bear insinuates Russia was not alone in sending tainted athletes to the games, naming several US competitors and making their medical records available for download.
Fancy Bear warns it has more revelations to come. &Reg;
Russian hackers leak Simone Biles and Serena Williams files
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-37352326 [bbc.com]
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has condemned Russian hackers for leaking confidential medical files of star US Olympic athletes.
Athletes affected include tennis players Venus and Serena Williams and teenage gymnast Simone Biles.
A group calling itself "Fancy Bears" claimed responsibility for the hack of a Wada database.
After the leak, Ms Biles said she had long been taking medicine for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
The hacker group had accused her of taking an "illicit psycho-stimulant", but she said she had "always followed the rules".
The Rio Olympics quadruple gold medallist had obtained the necessary permission to take prescription medicine on the Wada banned drugs list, USA Gymnastics said in a statement.
Wada said in a statement that the cyber attacks were an attempt to undermine the global anti-doping system.
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was "out of the question" that the Kremlin or secret services were involved in the hacking, Russian news agencies reported.
The hackers accessed records detailing "Therapeutic Use Exemptions" (TUEs), which allow the use of banned substances due to athletes' verified medical needs.
"By virtue of the TUE, Biles has not broken any drug-testing regulations, including at the Olympic Games in Rio," USA Gymnastics said.
Fancy Bears said TUEs amount to "licences for doping".
The leaked documents allege that Serena Williams was granted permission to use drugs commonly used to treat muscle injuries, such as anti-inflammatories, while Biles is said to use Ritalin - a treatment for her ADHD.
Former - Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority head Richard Ings said: "Nothing I see here gives me cause for alarm," adding it looked "totally normal".
"The issue here is privacy breach."
