Fancy Bear Attack: Hackers attack anti

At least 16 national and international sports and anti-doping organizations on three continents have been targeted by hackers. This was announced by the software company Microsoft. The cyber attacks had begun on 16 September, shortly before the trial of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) for allegedly manipulated laboratory data. Some of the attacks were successful, but the majority were not, it was said without further details.

This was done by the hacker group Strontium, also known as APT 28 or Fancy Bear. According to western intelligence agencies, it is a unit of the Russian military intelligence service GRU.

The group had in recent years, inter alia, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the US Antidoping Authority (Usada) attacked and also published medical data of athletes. Among them were the names of athletes who have made use of an official exemption (TUE) that is on the doping list.

Fancy Bear had also made public an interim report of the Usada on the athletics coach Alberto Salazar from the now-closed Nike Oregon Project. Salazar was suspended for four years for violating anti-doping regulations.

Decision on Rusada expulsion later this year

Meanwhile, the Wada announced that the question of an exclusion of the Russian Antidoping Authority Rusada currently examined the Russian answers to a questionnaire. Subsequently, the Wada Executive Committee will be advised as soon as possible on the further course of action and possible sanctions. A decision could therefore fall this year.

Should the Rusada be ruled out again, Russia faces a severe punishment. This could extend to the exclusion of Russian athletes from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

A chronology of the Russian doping scandal that has been affecting the sports world for years can be found here.