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World Anti-Doping Agency Says It Was Hacked By Russia (theverge.com)
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is accusing Russian state-sponsored hackers of hacking its database of athletes involved in this year's Olympic Games in Rio. Whether it's in response to the WADA banning 119 Russian athletes from participating in the games due to a doping scandal, it has yet to be determined. The Verge reports: The agency claims the state-sponsored group Fancy Bear is behind the attack, although it doesn't clarify how that attribution was made. The accessed data included medical information, like Therapeutic Use Exemptions issued by International Sports Federations and National Anti-Doping Organizations. The group has reportedly released some of this data and threatened to release more. The attackers reportedly relied on spear phishing emails to gain access to the database and eventually used credentials specifically made for the Rio Olympic games. Fancy Bear was the same group responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee earlier this year.
"We were hacked by Russia" seems to be the latest excuse for poor security.
Hopefully, the World Anti-Doping Agency will be sued into oblivion over their mishandling of personal data.
And not surprisingly, the US was discovered to be doping at massive levels thanks to the hack. US gymnastics gold medalist "super-star" Simone? Caught doping, but got "doctor's permission" to dope.
So it's not surprising that after a US-led investigation "caught" Russia doping, it turns out that the US was doping just as much. The only difference is that the US rewrote the rules to allow their doping.
WADA (not a reliable source) said they were hacked by Russians. They did not say they were hacked by Russia.
Personally I think the rules make sense as as you said it is supposed to be about who is the best athlete not who has the best chemists, the enforcement however is a disgrace as they seem to be completely political. I think it is pathetic that they banned Russia yet other countries that were arguably even worse violators received no such sanctions. As long as the rules a based on politics rather than fairness things will only continue to get worse.
And it's dubious that Ritalin would help a gymnast, though it might an endurance athlete.
Are you high?! (sorry, can't help it)
And it's not just Ritalin. For years she was scarfing Adderall and Dexedrine too. All stimulants. All banned.
Taking this to extreme: let's attach a jet pack to Steven Hawking's chair (under doctor's prescription) and let him compete in 100m sprint. Although it would be fun to watch, it would definitely be unfair to other athletes.
And that is my point: occasionally taking drugs to overcome injuries is totally fine by me. But taking them for years gives an unfair advantage - exactly what anti-doping tries to prevent.
"Massive scale?" The hack listed a grand total of four athletes, all of whom had medical exemptions.
Biles' was for Ritalin for ADHD, a condition she has been under treatment for since she was a young child. Williams' was for painkillers and anyiinflammmatories for chronic injuries.
The fact that the media have failed to put the ridiculousness of the Russian claims front and center and have perpetuated the "drug cheats" narratice promulgated by the Russian hackers in their headlines shows just how far the standards of the fourth estate have fallen.
In fact, the hack doesn't show doping occurred at all, since the only evidence it has uncovered is for appropriate therapeutic uses of controlled substances under prescription and properly reviewed and obtained waivers by the WADA.
Of course for the 90% of news "readers" who merely look at a headline and pass judgment, none of this matters, and the damage is done. Yet because news outlets know that such salacious headlines are the only way to get views and resultant ad revenue, they are perversely incentivized to keep making them.
The Russkies aren't dumb; they know this effect well and are exploiting it to push their agenda in international discourse. The major political parties and their operatives in the U.S. do too, which is why you will see patently absurd headlines like "Trump Says Obama literally is the founder of ISIS" made, since the average reader is too stupid/lazy to look below the fold to see the body of the story explaining "duh, this isn't true" and will accept the statement at face value.