The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Tuesday slammed Russian hackers who breached its database and published confidential records of US Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams.
The agency said in a statement that the Russian cyberespionage group Tsar Team (APT28), also known as Fancy Bears, had broken into its Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) database.
The hacking group released information gleaned from the files of Biles, the Williams sisters and US women’s basketball player Elena Delle Donne.
In a post on its Web site, Fancy Bears claimed US athletes at the Olympics had “played well, but not fair.”
However, none of the documents published by the group provided evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the athletes involved.
Instead, the disclosed files set out instances where the athletes had been granted exemptions to use various medications for legitimate reasons — a common practice in the sports world.
The US Anti-Doping Agency characterized the hack as a “cowardly and despicable” attempt to smear the four women.
“In each of the situations, the athlete has done everything right in adhering to the global rules for obtaining permission to use a needed medication,” US Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart said.
“The cyberbullying of innocent athletes being engaged by these hackers is cowardly and despicable,” added Tygart, the anti-doping czar who famously helped expose US cyclist and dope cheat Lance Armstrong.
An International Olympic Committee spokeswoman said the leaked information was “clearly aimed at tarnishing the reputation of clean athletes” while reiterating that no anti-doping violation had occurred.
The data breach comes just weeks after hackers gained access to WADA’s file on Russian doping whistle-blower Yulia Stepanova.
Stepanova, who is living in hiding in the US, later said she feared for her life following the hack.
“WADA deeply regrets this situation and is very conscious of the threat that it represents to athletes whose confidential information has been divulged through this criminal act,” WADA director-general Olivier Niggli said in a statement.
“WADA condemns these ongoing cyberattacks that are being carried out in an attempt to undermine WADA and the global anti-doping system,” Niggli added.
WADA said that it believed the latest breach had occurred after “spear phishing” of e-mail accounts and that it had been confined to ADAMS accounts of athletes competing in Rio.
Spear phishing is when an e-mail user is targeted with a message purportedly from someone they know, but it is actually from a hacker.
The hacking comes after a series of WADA investigations that have alleged a vast state-sponsored doping program in Russian sport dating back several years.
WADA director Niggli said the hacking of the agency would hamper Russian efforts to reintegrate into the sports world.
“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 said.
However, Fancy Bears indicated it planned to release more information.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” the group said on its Web site. “Wait for sensational proof of famous athletes taking doping substances anytime soon.”
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