World Anti-Doping Agency Confirms Russian Cyberattack

The World Anti-Doping Agency has confirmed that a Russian hacker group known as “Fancy Bear”—the same group accused of breaking into the Democratic National Committee’s networks—breached the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System database. The organization said it believes the hack came through an International Olympic Committee account used during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Fancy Bear reportedly accessed and then leaked confidential medical data of famous athletes, including Americans, WADA said. “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,” said Olivier Niggli, the organization’s director general. “We are reaching out to stakeholders, such as the IOC, [international federations], and [National Anti-Doping Organizations] regarding the specific athletes impacted.” Niggli condemned the attack, adding that the breach “greatly [compromises] 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.”