WADA Database Hacked By Russia During 2016 Rio Olympics

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirmed today that a cyber espionage group based out of Russia hacked into the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) database during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The cyber espionage group was operating under the name of Tsar Team (APT28), also known as Fancy Bear, and accessed the database via an International Olympic Committee (IOC) account that was created for the Games. This account allowed the group to access data on the athletes, some of which was subsequently released in the public domain along with a threat that more would be released.

WADA has issued assurances that no other ADAMS data has been compromised.

Director General of WADA, Olivier Niggli, noted,

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. We are reaching out to stakeholders, such as the IOC, IFs, and NADOs, regarding the specific athletes impacted. WADA condemns these ongoing cyber-attacks that are being carried out in an attempt to undermine WADA and the global anti-doping system. WADA has been informed by law enforcement authorities that these attacks are originating out of Russia. Let it be known that 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.

The Agency has since extended their investigation with law enforcement authorities, announced that they are conducting both internal and external security vulnerability checks, and are “taking the necessary measures to ensure that stakeholders securely manage ADAMS passwords and its usage.”

More about the WADA database hack can be found here.

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Bill Bell

7 years ago

I’m shocked! SHOCKED!!!

— “Vlady” Putin

Andrei Vorontsov

7 years ago

License to cheat:
It follows that somebody has the official license to use PED and for a long time! Unilateral benefits of the longtime use (in case of Williams sisters – steroids and other hormones) for sport performances are evident.
It looks like the health of top athletes (as well as candidates to Presidents of the USA) is not their private matter anymore and they must be obliged to give the official statement of their health (health problems). That is how the problem must be treated in nearest future if we really want to have a clean, PED-free sport.

7 years ago

Reply to Andrei Vorontsov

I agree. Full disclosure is the only way to go. Also, it would be great if athletes submitted any supplement they want to take for approval before they take it. That would eliminate accidental positives that don’t really mean much, as appears to have happened with some swimmers.

Also it would mean that anyone who did get caught taking something they hadn’t declared would truly deserve a harsh punishment. Even a substance that was legal but undeclared and uncovered in later testing could be grounds for punishment.

Leander

7 years ago

I’m sure that Guccifer 2.0 and the Russian SVR RF are really scared now after reading that press release.

Andrei Vorontsov

7 years ago

I worked for many years with British, German, Swedish swimmers who, I am sure, were and are absolutely CLEAN. They deserve honest treatment.
The sense is not to frighten somebody, but to provide really clean athletes with possibility to compete against evenly clean opponents. In this respect, the WADA and IOC must be more transparent and honest. And it will be 200% right to list in events’ programme against the name of each Olympic (World/Euro/Asian Championships’) athlete the names of medications he or she uses accordingly TE they’ve been granted by the WADA. Everybody must see how many substances and for how long each contestant used in his/her preparation. No necessity to disclose medical diagnosis. Granting the TE does not exclude possibility of manipulations with it. It would be very informative when you will be able to see: “this athlete uses one medication, this two-three (4,5,6) and LOOK, THIS GUY/GIRL USED NONE!!!”