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Seven Russian Hackers Charged With Hacking Anti-Doping Organizations (theverge.com) 115

Posted by BeauHD from the finger-pointing dept.
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.
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Seven Russian Hackers Charged With Hacking Anti-Doping Organizations More

Seven Russian Hackers Charged With Hacking Anti-Doping Organizations

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  • In B4 Vlad (Score:5, Funny)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @07:51PM (#57428238) Journal

    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

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Nope just blatant stupidity and politicisation of stupidity. Just how the fuck do they ever expect to arrest those persons by publicly announcing they want to arrest those persons when they are in a country from which extradition is impossible ie you fucking moron, that is exactly what secret warrants are for and surprise phone call telling you, you have won a trip to Disneyland on fly naked with a bag on your head airlines (I have been told I won a free trip to Disneyland, I informed them I was on the do n

      • The proof that it is political bullshit is the public announcement to ensure it never ever goes to court.

        These charges were brought by the Trump Justice Department. Just what exactly are you blaming him of?

        • The bigger case is that of 4 Russians caught red handed in Sweden, with plenty of physical evidence. All the denials in the world cant make this go away.
          https://www.theguardian.com/wo... [theguardian.com]

          • "caught red handed in Sweden,"

            Netherlands, not Sweden.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          Mate, they charged Russian trolls from a typical internet click bait marketing firm with crimes, issued arrest warrants and then sanctioned them to prevent them from entering the US, how the fuck can you arrest them when you bar them from entering the country.

          Blame Trump, for what, just another empty talking head, this is the deep state and shadow government, PR driven by profound arrogance, they simply pay no attention to anything beyond their own ego and bullshit, it is a silly as fuck and just makes the

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by jamlam ( 1101193 )
            Mate, the Russian government won't extradite them and they won't leave Russia, everyone knows they're not going to be arrested as Putin will protect them. This is about the "next best" way to deal with the situation, by humiliating the Russian security services and showing how incompetent and dangerous they are. It also seems to be led mainly by the British and Dutch at the moment (with Trump grudgingly tagging along, I'd imagine he'd rather not be involved at all). I'm guessing your preferred solution is
          • Mate, are you saying that lobbyists paid for by a corporation are the shadow government, this "deep state" we hear so much about? Surely you aren't insinuating that a for profit personhood entitled entity could or would be "actually be running that government department from behind the scenes"?

            Please enlighten us.

            I would imagine you have a deep understanding and breadth of knowledge in this because you use words and phrases like:
            click bait
            sanctioned
            deep state
            political appointees
            corruption

    • It's just more anti-Russian hysteria (and government propaganda).

      I mean don't you find it strange that the US justice department is able to determine the name of the officers who were in charge of the hacking? I mean they can find the method used, they can find the IP of a zombie used for the attack, if they can put their hands on the zombie they could find the IP of the one controlling the zombie, but finding the names of the officers who worked on that mission? Sorry, I don't believe that for a second. It

      • They caught them casing a building in Netherlands.

        • I'm not saying the Russian government doesn't have spies, I'm saying the Russian government does not have a monopoly on hackers. Right now, the same way everyone having a "dissenting" opinion is called a Russian bot, every time a kid is hacking something, he is called a GRU officer. This is absolutely ridiculous and people who believe this are incredibly gullible.

          BTW, do you remember when it was revealed the NSA was tapping 125 phones of German officials, including Angela Merkel phone? Don't you think the U

          • Right now, the same way everyone having a "dissenting" opinion is called a Russian bot,

            I agree that this line of "refutation" is overused. And it's been added to the toolbox of anyone without a real argument. But given that Dutch authorities caught some actual physical people casing a building, this creates a credible reason to name them.

            BTW, do you remember when it was revealed the NSA was tapping 125 phones of German officials, including Angela Merkel phone? Don't you think the US government hacking and spying pretty much the whole German government for 20 years is a bit more serious than some Russian spies casing a building in the Netherlands?

            I don't think it's relevant to this case. You said it wasn't credible that those individuals' names were known. And I would agree with that had some of them not been physically apprehended. They were though. This case stands on its own for this reason a

            • The subject is the mass hysteria against Russia in the US, which is the result of some people voluntarily trying to present any information out of context for political objectives. The goal of this "fake news" (information out of context is "fake news") is to demonize Russia (or Iran) in order to instill fear so people stop asking questions, or to associate political adversaries to this new boogeyman to easily destroy their reputation.

              Mentioning that the US government, like all governments, uses all its pow

              • The general trend is not the topic though. The topic is this specific instance. And in this instance, it does look like there is a solid case to be made for Russian spying.
    • Pope, we shot you once, we can repeat.

      • Pope, we shot you once, we can repeat.

        Hey, welcome to Slashdot! One of my very favorite things is when I can get someone to make an account here just to reply to me. I choose to take it as a testimony to my popularity. Plus, Slashdot pays me in Bitcoin whenever I can convert an Anonymous Coward into a registered account.

        Just think: as long as your account exists, your very first comment will be a testament to me.

  • ABC news breathlessly reported this spy ring has conducting a cyber attack on the Dutch lab to cover up the use of a nerve agent against a Russian defector and his daughter in England?

    So is this about the attempted assassination on English soil with a WMD, or is this about some lame concerns about sports cheating? Which is it?

    • 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 met

      • 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 nev

        • So is this something that happens all the time, and they luckily got them this time? Or are they the Russian "Spies Like US?" Judging by the press conference of the two spies who failed to kill Skripal, the latter appears to be more probable.

          • I believe that generally neither the failed nor the successful attempts/counter actions are made public. We only occasionally hear about terrorist attacks that were prevented by the Dutch secret service and hardly ever about actual affairs with diplomatic consequences.

        • Correction: *attempted * murder of Skripal. It was someone else who died of the nerve agent.

    • You missed lots of news (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There's so much news you're all swamped. For example, the Novichok nerve agents used in the attack on the UK. One of the Russians who did the poisoning, who appeared on Russian TV pretending to be just a tourist on a two day trip to see cathedrals, Ruslan Boshirov, was identified as a high ranking Russian intelligence agent Col. Anatoliy Chepiga.

      https://www.businessinsider.com/skripal-poisoning-suspect-identified-as-russian-intelligence-officer-2018-9

      Or in the Trump meeting, the 'accidental' death of Genera

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