Russian hackers attempt to steal Australian athletes’ medical records
Russian operatives attempted to steal highly confidential drug test and medical records of every Australian athlete to discredit the world as their own Olympic team faces expulsion from Tokyo.
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THE highly-confidential drug test and medical records of every Australian athlete was cyber-attacked by Russian operatives, trying to discredit the world as their own Olympic team faces expulsion from the Tokyo Games.
Only ASADA’s beefed-up IT security firewalls enabled the anti-doping agency to repel the attack into strictly private athlete information.
The major development has emerged as the glare of the entire sporting world bears down on Russia once again.
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For the second time in three years, Russia is embroiled in another drug scandal which includes the brazen attempt to erase positive drug tests under the nose of authorities.
ASADA CEO David Sharpe is leading a call for Russia to be banned from the 2020 Olympics, if their deceit is proven by world anti-doping agency investigators.
Sharpe’s swift response emerged as he revealed how the agency has previously torpedoed an attack from the same Russian hackers that have attacked the computer networks of at least 16 national and international sports and anti-doping organizations.
Microsoft revealed on Monday that the attacks are the latest in a series of Russian cyberattacks on foreign politicians, sporting officials and anti-doping regulators.
The attacks were timed as the World Anti-Doping Agency deals with the continued fallout from the 2015 Russian doping scandal, which snowballed in recent months after WADA officials discovered that Russian athletes’ failed drug tests had been erased from a critical data set.
Microsoft traced the attacks to a group of notorious Russian state-backed hackers known as APT-28 who go by the alias, Fancy Bear.
“We invested very heavily after (the 2016 attack) in our ICT (Information and Communication Technology) security and working very closely with the relevant government agencies to protect it (records),’’ Sharpe said.
“We had a range of attacks from the same body APT28, that are mentioned in the story and we’ve repelled them to date.
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“We’re working with the Australian cyber security centre very closely and to date, we’ve been very successful.
“We have looked at our ICT security to ensure we protect the athletes information which was medical records, which is what ‘Fancy Bear’ went after.’’
The group is one of two Russian government groups responsible for the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee, as well as previous cyberattacks on sports and anti-doping officials between 2014 and 2018.
The attacks resulted in the 2018 indictment of seven Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking sports and anti-doping officials, as well as spreading personal emails belonging to anti-doping officials and the private medical records of athletes.
Originally published as Russian hackers attempt to steal Australian athletes’ medical records