back to article Fancy Bears' who-takes-what in sports hack list ‘manipulated’ before leak

Hackers may have doctored athletes’ data prior to leaking it, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The "Fancy Bear" hacking group has been releasing details of athletes' Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE*) after breaking into the systems of the fair play enforcement agency, as previously reported. WADA, which …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The TUE process allows athlete to obtain approval to use a prescribed prohibited substance or method for the treatment of a legitimate medical condition, such as asthma.

    The TUE process allows an asthmatic and a person with a heart condition to compete in the final of a Grand Slam. It also allows successful applicants to be the tooth fairy and fly around on magic dust alone. The most popular forms of magic dust are metabolism intensifiers in endurance sportsmen. Oh, they also happen to be found in asthma medications. Cough... Cough... Cough...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Da Comrade!

  2. lukewarmdog
    Joke

    In Russia, data runs rings round you!

    1. P. Lee

      Upvote, to counteract the humourless.

      Did anyone else think the "mays" seemed a bit extensive?

      They need a new PR firm. Either don't comment on leaked medical data, say it definitely is incorrect or say you are obtaining the athletes permission for full disclosure, or say you'll comment later when the leak-data has been reviewed. "It may be have been manipulated" looks like weasel-words.

      1. tmTM

        Slam it as soon as it appears?

        It's stolen data thrown up online by some faceless hacker, there are few less reliable sources of information, it should be easy to discredit it solely due to it's source.

  3. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Does that mean the Panama papers *might* have been made up ?

    1. EL Vark
      Holmes

      Sure, insofar as any digital information is subject to falsification. Only a series of forensic audits can determine the truth, presuming that the affected governments can gain access to all relevant information, which is not at all assured. Also, while governments might appear to be highly motivated to recover diverted taxation, that motivation can be tempered by the individuals and businesses involved (on both sides in the case of the former), as any potential threat to political fundraising trumps both need (tax dollars to spend on schools, bridges, and bombs) and ethics. Bottom line: "That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more: it is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."

    2. phuzz Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Given the response of many of the people named in the Panama papers ("This is completely made up, my client pays all of the taxes required", which became "this is a total breach of privacy, my client has many totally legitimate business holdings in Andorra" which became "my client has complied with all laws in the past, they are planning to retreat completely from the offshore sector"), in a manner akin to cockroaches in a room when the light has just been turned on, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that certainly large parts of the Panama papers were legit.

      Anyway, no-one is saying that all of the WADA leak is made up, just that some of the files seem to have been modified after they were pinched, by someone who didn't understand change tracking in office documents.

  4. I am the liquor

    Organizational Doxing and Disinformation

    Kudos to Bruce Schneier who was predicting exactly this sort of thing just last month.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/hacking-forgeries/499775/

    I guess there are 3 possibilities:

    1. Bruce Schneier's 10^80 qubit brain simultaneously sees all possible futures

    2. The WADA hackers read Bruce's article and thought, "that's a good idea"

    3. WADA read Bruce's article and thought, "that's a good idea, we should say that's what happened."

    I'm favouring 1.

    1. NonSSL-Login
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Organizational Doxing and Disinformation

      4. Bruce Schneier is Fancy Bear.

      Mind blown.

      Without knowing what information was doctored, it's difficult to guess at the motivation for the changes. I guess that info will be kept from us.

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