At the Rio Games, Olympic officials stayed at the Windsor hotel chain and were principally headquartered at the Windsor Marapendi, where a pop-up sports arbitration court and other official proceedings were conducted.
On Aug. 19, 2016 — about 15 hours before two of the Russian spies were scheduled to depart Rio de Janeiro — an Olympic official logged on to the private global antidoping database, affording the hackers access. “Large-scale exports of data” followed on Aug. 29, 2016 and Sept. 6, 2016, the Justice Department prosecutors said.
What other events did the spies attend?
The frenzy of activity extended into September 2016, when two spies traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland, where the I.O.C. is headquartered, for an antidoping conference. The intelligence officers stayed at different hotels, each known to host antidoping officials for the occasion. By compromising a hotel Wi-Fi system, they gained access to a Canadian official’s laptop and email account.
Was any of this activity discovered at the time?
Some organizations — like WADA, the global antidoping regulator; Usada, the American regulator; and the I.A.A.F., the track and field governing body that first banned Russia in November 2015 — had announced they had been the subject of cyberattacks.
But Thursday’s indictment provided a new level of detail about the mechanics and extent of the attacks while also revealing, for example, that FIFA’s medical and antidoping director also had his computer breached. Until at least Jan. 2, 2017, the spies had access to a computer belonging to the head of FIFA’s medical and antidoping division and downloaded “more than 100 documents,” including evidence produced in investigations of Russian doping.
What motivated the attacks?
“All of this was done to undermine organizations’ efforts to ensure the integrity of the Olympics and other Games,” a Justice Department official said at Thursday’s news conference.
After the attacks occurred, until at least January 2018, according to the indictment, the hackers “would actively solicit and promote media coverage so the stolen information would receive international attention.”
Source : NYtimes
