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Seven Russian Hackers Charged With Hacking Anti-Doping Organizations (theverge.com)
Seven Russian intelligence officers have been indicted by the Justice Department for computing hacking, wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft -- all as part of an effort to distract from Russia's state-sponsored doping program. The defendants reportedly stole and disseminated the personal information of several prominent anti-doping officials and 250 athletes following the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The Verge reports: The indictment names all seven of the accused as members of the Russian Federation intelligence agency (or GRU) housed within the intelligence directorate of the Russian military. Three of the defendants were also charged as part of the Mueller investigation regarding hacking the Democratic National Convention in an attempt to compromise U.S. election infrastructure in 2016. The Justice Department claimed in its indictment that the GRU officials were working to undermine the advocacy of anti-doping organizations, officials, and athletes following the exposure of a Russian state-sponsored doping campaign in 2015. Login credentials were stolen through classic phishing techniques, which, in some cases, gave the hackers access to the medical profiles of some athletes. This information was then disseminated over social media by the hackers who disguised themselves as a hacktivist group called the Fancy Bears' Hack Team.
In the case of four-time Olympic gold medalist runner Mo Farah, the Fancy Bears' Hack Team had gained access to his "biological passport." This set of information tracks the blood data of athletes in order to monitor the potentiality of doping. The group then posted the contents of Farah's profile over social media, pointing to results that claimed he was "likely doping." By use of this method, the hackers were able to subvert media attention away from Russia's doping accusations and point the finger at other countries as well. The indictment claims that the hackers spoke to 186 different reporters in order to "amplify the exposure" of their message.
In the case of four-time Olympic gold medalist runner Mo Farah, the Fancy Bears' Hack Team had gained access to his "biological passport." This set of information tracks the blood data of athletes in order to monitor the potentiality of doping. The group then posted the contents of Farah's profile over social media, pointing to results that claimed he was "likely doping." By use of this method, the hackers were able to subvert media attention away from Russia's doping accusations and point the finger at other countries as well. The indictment claims that the hackers spoke to 186 different reporters in order to "amplify the exposure" of their message.
Countdown to "It's just more anti-Russian hysteria. I'm shocked...SHOCKED I tell you that someone would suggest there would be any shenanigans regarding their Olympic athletes. #MAGA" Signed, Not a Russian Troll, But a Totally American Guy Named Pyotr
You are welcome on my lawn.
Military intelligence service is now so free for time it has ability to get into the pastime of sport? Who would use military intelligence service for international spy networks for sport?
I think the security of the Russian government depends on a public that feels that they are members of a great nation that is unfairly targeted by the Western powers. The exposure of Russia's athlete doping is a wound against national prestige, so discrediting the responsible party shows that 1) Russia is unfairly targeted by Western powers and 2) Russia really is a great nation at sports (the Olympics, World Cup, etc.)
When a nations spies it uses its best spies with the best change of never getting detected.
Why task a military intelligence service for a role they are not experts in?
Nations can't always use their best spies--half will always be below average, and crap like this is a low-stakes opportunity to make them better. Trump is in the Whitehouse, Putin is in Ukraine, and some poisoned are people in England: getting caught hacking a sports agency will have little real consequence, but could have paid reasonable dividends domestically.
The West is fixated on the GRU for some reason. Its not the intelligence service that would be used internationally for "sport". They have NATO tanks to count and advanced drones to watch for.
I think public budgets and secret satellites keep Russia appraised of NATO tanks. My impression is that spycraft is a use-it or lose-it skill. Russia is using it.
Russia's chief problem these days is that, despite all the outward pretensions of being the Great Bear of the Czarist and Russian eras, much of its power is inherited from its own past. Syria is just about as distant a military campaign as it can hope to involve itself in. NATO may not be as big as it wants to be in Eastern Europe, but it has encroached into a number of Warsaw Pact states. Sure Ukraine has been split apart, but even there, the fact that a large portion of that nation remains outside Moscow's ability to control demonstrates just how far Russia has fallen in the last quarter century. Yes, it still has nukes, and it is largely because of those nukes that it has the international prestige it has, but the damage wreaked upon its economy even by the partial sanctions shows its vulnerability. Cyberwarfare is a potent weapon, as are the older mundane methods of terrorizing defectors, and it has shown some ability at sowing divisions among its rivals, but this is a nation that has fallen far.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
OK, what happened is that earlier this year, two of these guys were busted in the Netherlands. And their laptop was seized. And they were kicked out of the country. And the contents of the laptop showed evidence of on-site operations in at least 4 countries, and included attacks on both the sports doping agency and also a chemical weapons investigation group.
Netherlands and Sweden have publicly done a bunch to thwart and expose this group. They can do that, because they have less to hide in the areas of methods and procedures than the US. But what the US does have is a Department of Justice with close ties around the world, that can indict these guys and prevent them from traveling to many potential attack sites.
Something like that, don't trust me for the details, but go find some good reporting if you're interested. There is a lot to the story. One of the guys registered his home address in Russia as a GRU office (!! LOL) and his car was registered to the same office for a number of years.
Derptastic analysis.
Who would use a military intelligence service to attack sport? A country whose foreign policy goals included winning at sport by cheating. Fucking duh. I mean. Fucking. Duh.
Those Russian spies were busted in the Netherlands while they were using a directional wifi antenna e in a car parked next to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons building in April, a month after Skripal was murdered with - likely - Russian nerve gas. Apparently, a lot of talking between Russia and Netherlands happened behind the scenes. It's only because the US was going to go public yesterday that the Dutch authorities decided to disclose what happened in April. Otherwise we would never have heard of this.
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