Unscheduled test: Microsoft announced the attacks of Fancy Bear hackers on anti-doping organizations

At least 16 national and international sports and anti-doping organizations could be attacked by hacker groups. This was stated by Microsoft Vice President of Security Tom Burt on the corporate blog.

According to Burt, the attacks on 16 organizations located on three continents allegedly began on September 16th. Microsoft noted that the attacks occurred before media reports about a possible step of media reports about a possible step of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The cybersecurity corporation responsible for the unnamed 16 organizations acknowledged that some attacks on their servers were successful, but most were repelled. Microsoft customers were warned of the problems and received the necessary assistance. The attacks were carried out using phishing, sputtering passwords, Internet-connected devices and malware.

Accusations of involvement in these attacks were made to the hacker group Strontium, also known as Fancy Bear and APT28. Microsoft’s latest statement did not indicate the origin of the crackers, but earlier in August 2018, company president Brad Smith claimed that Strontium “is widely associated with the Russian government.” No evidence of such a connection was provided.

RUSADA noted that the organization is regularly subjected to cyber attacks, but they are confident in the reliable protection of its servers.

“No serious cyber attacks were recorded. But from time to time, as our information security specialist informed, some attacks are carried out on our server. However, everything is reliably protected, all security systems are updated. In general, we didn’t suffer in any way, ”Margarita Pakhnotskaya, deputy director general of the agency, told RIA Novosti.

The American Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) confirmed that a “deliberate and flagrant attack on passwords” of the organization was committed, but no serious consequences were noticed.

“The penetration did not happen, but we were in touch with our community. These attacks are a new norm for us, ”said The New York Times head of USADA, Travis Tigert.

The WADA press service expressed concern about the statement by Microsoft, but said that it does not have evidence that the organization’s systems were hacked.

Microsoft said that it was decided to report attacks on servers of anti-doping organizations in connection with the upcoming Summer Olympic Games, which will be held in Tokyo next summer. However, the appearance of the press release also coincided with the new WADA statement of inquiry regarding RUSADA.

The international organization confirmed that they received answers from the Russian authorities to initial and additional questions about changes to the Moscow laboratory database. Due to suspicions of their intentional commission against the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, the procedure for withdrawing compliance status was initiated, initiated on September 17.

The WADA Investigation Department and independent experts will soon be considering the Russian side’s responses, after which an opinion will be given to the compliance committee. That, in turn, will issue a recommendation to the executive World Anti-Doping Agency to strip or not RUSADA of its current status. Due to the fact that the information collected is technically complex, it will take a lot of time to study it, and WADA noted that they cannot indicate any dates on this subject.

The organization hopes that it will be possible to prepare a report for the executive committee by the end of November this year. After that, the main governing body of WADA will try to get together and consider the status of RUSADA in a short time to reach a final verdict until December 31. This is due to the fact that on the last day of the year the term of leadership of the organization of the current president Craig Reedy expires. Then the case will fall on the shoulders of the next chapter of WADA Witold Banya.