Another Batch of Useless WADA Files Leaked by Fancy Bears Hackers

Athletes who are affected include lawn tennis players Serena and Venus Williams, as well as Simone Biles, the teenage gymnast.

A group self-proclaimed as "Fancy Bears" claimed the responsibility for hacking of the Wada database. After the leakage, Simone Biles said that she was having medicine for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) since a long time.

According to Crowdstrike, a company of cyber security, Fancy Bears are a threat group based in Russia. Dmitri Alperovitch, CEO of Crowdstrike, in his blog stated that the threat group is also recognized as APT 28 or Sofacy. He adds that their style "closely mirrors the strategic interests of the Russian government".

Bbc.com posted on September 13th, 2016, stating that hackers accessed the records describing "Therapeutic Use Exemptions" (TUEs), which permit using banned substances because of verified medical needs of athletes.

On Wednesday, WADA said that Russian group again gained access illegally to its ADAMS (Anti-Doping Administration and Management System), which included secret medical information like TUEs.

The actions seem to be designed to tie hack to Russian Group called Fancy Bear, one of the two teams of hackers having links with Russian intelligence agencies as found by Democratic National Committee while digging its files in the early parts of this summer. Few cyberespionage experts see it as an indication of a growing Russian hacker mentality that's traded stealth for flashy public dumps of adversaries' data.

Although the government of Russia denied any kind of involvement, it has constantly maintained that Russia has been the victim for more extensive problem, and this only add fuel to this fire.

Although athletes related to this have not broken any rules or regulations, the revelations - together with threat of having more medical records leaks of other competitors - will certainly aggravate controversy surrounding the TUEs at a time when the leaders of sports are badly trying to reestablish trust.

After the WADA hack yesterday, Nicholas Weaver, security researcher of Berkeley computer, wrote on Twitter: "so let me get this straight, 'Fancy Bear' is DIRECTLY claiming credit for this? Testicular fortitude. We have shown we have no strategy for deterrence in this space, so the Bears are getting Fancy with us".

» SPAMfighter News - 9/21/2016