Fancy Bear Strikes Again

BERLIN, GERMANY - MARCH 01: In this photo illustration artwork found on the Internet showing Fancy Bear is seen on the computer of the photographer during a session in the plenary hall of the Bundestag, the German parliament, on March 1, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. German authorities announced yesterday that administrative computers of the German government, including those of government ministries and parliament, had been infiltrated with malware. Authorities said they suspect the Russian hacker group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

(ATR) At least 16 national and international sporting and anti-doping organizations have recently been targeted in "significant cyberattacks" by Fancy Bear, according to Microsoft.

In a blog released on Monday, Microsoft did not reveal the names of the targets, but said the attacks began Sept. 16, just before news reports that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced a formal compliance procedure against the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) after finding inconsistencies in data retrieved from the Moscow doping lab in January.

Microsoft says that some of the attacks were successful, though the majority were not. But the successful attacks could result in private documents being leaked ahead of next summer's Tokyo Olympics.

It is not the first time that Fancy Bear has gone after organizations tied to the Olympic Movement in retaliation for punishing Russia and Russian Olympic athletes for the country’s widespread doping campaign at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

WADA was targeted in 2016, with confidential medical data on athletes stolen and then published. Simone Biles and Serena and Venus Williams were among the victims.

In 2018, WADA revealed that Fancy Bear was behind the publishing of private emails taken from the IOC. The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang was also hit, with a hack at the opening of the Games disrupting ticket sales and WiFi networks.

Microsoft, in its report, says the latest hacking efforts bear the hallmarks of Strontium, the name Microsoft has given Fancy Bear.

It also outlined what to do to protect against these types of attacks, recommending that organizations and individuals do three things: 1) enable two-factor authentication on all business and personal email accounts, 2) learn how to spot phishing schemes and protect yourself from them, and 3) enable security alerts about links and files from suspicious websites.

WADA Update on Russian Data Crunching

WADA on Monday confirmed that it had received further responses from the Russian authorities to a list of detailed and technical questions, including follow-up questions, raised by WADA’s Intelligence and Investigations Department (I&I) and the independent forensic experts concerning the data from the Moscow Laboratory.

WADA says that while there is no fixed timeline for the process, it is hoping that the WADA I&I report will be completed and sent to the Compliance Review Committee (CRC) for consideration before the end of November. The CRC would then decide whether to bring a formal recommendation of non-compliance and proposed consequences to the WADA Executive Committee, which would then meet as soon as possible to discuss any recommendation.

A potential complication is that the term of WADA President Craig Reedie, who chairs the ExCo, ends on Dec. 31. His successor Witold Banka, who is set to be appointed in November at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Katowice, Poland, would need to take over should the process be delayed into the new year.

Written by Gerard Farek

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