For the past few months, like new best friends, the words “Russia” and “hacking” seem to be everywhere together.
Russian cyber agents – both state-affiliated and not – have been all over the news lately either being blamed for or actually claiming ownership of a variety of successful and attempted hacks, mostly on American targets. These Russian hacking groups seem to be enjoying the limelight, while they have it, working hard to keep the spotlight on themselves by constantly upping the ante and going after new targets.
Most recently, as in this past Tuesday, Russian hackers leaked the medical records of a hand-picked group of successful U.S. Olympics athletes. The hacking group now known as Fancy Bear was able to breach the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)’s athlete database to reveal confidential medical records of three of America’s most recognized athletes – Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Simone Biles.
In what most analysts are calling retaliation for WADA banning certain Russian Olympians after a widespread doping scandal, and for nearly banning the entire Russian team, Fancy Bear published a multitude of documents stating that Simone Biles, (who won five gold medals at the Rio Olympics) and the Williams sisters had each been granted medical exemptions to used banned drugs. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency confirmed the authenticity of the documents and said that all three athletes had followed the correct procedures and successfully received all necessary approvals to take these typically prohibited substances, (the ones in question are commonly used to treat ADHD, pain and allergies), and that none of the positive drug tests constituted a violation. Fancy Bear, aka the Russian hackers, hoped to at least ‘try’ the case in the court of international public opinion, and if not win it outright, at least deflect some of the attention Russian athletes were receiving as ‘cheaters’ and ‘dopers,’ claiming that the U.S. athletes had played “well, but not fair.”
So, why does this even matter? The big picture is that many reporters, analysts and U.S. citizens believe these hacks are aimed to hurt American credibility on the world stage. This might seem like a minor transgression in the grand scheme of things, but remember, this doping hack was actually just the latest attack in an unsettling string of Russian cyberattacks on predominantly American targets.
Think back to June when the Democratic National Committee was hacked by not one, but two groups alleged to have ties to the Russian government. Called “bear” because they are believed to be Russian, they were named Fancy Bear (yep, the same group) and Cozy Bear. And while some are skeptical about the “Russian Connection” (and while new data, including Tim Kaine’s cell phone number, is still being released) the facts are that the first discovered DNC breaches occurred on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s computer system. Then another Democratic Party group was hit. The results? Well, that’s the best part — officials still don’t yet know the full extent of the hacks. That said, we do know that, at least 20,000 emails were stolen from the DNC.
Fast forward to late August when reports surfaced indicating not one, but two, cyberattacks on state voter registration databases. The first one occurred in late May in Arizona, where Arizona officials had to take the entire statewide voting registration system offline. Matthew Roberts, Director of Communications for the Arizona secretary of state, said, “We indirectly heard that the credential and username posted online was from a known Russian hacker.” Then in late June, the Illinois database was hacked, compromising up to 200,000 personal voter records. Officials with the Board of Elections “are highly confident they (the hackers) weren’t able to change anything, although the investigation is still going on.” Basically, as with a lot of this material, that means we don’t know the full story yet.
Many believe Russian hackers are trying to downgrade the credibility of the U.S. presidential race possibly to keep turnout down. If true, this (meddling with another sovereign country’s internal election) is considered a huge offense. Given the laundry list of alleged and confirmed hacks that have been tied to Russian hackers, it is understandable why so many believe Russia to be behind this spate of geopolitically motivated attacks. Russia is certainly a major global player and their U.S.-targeted cyberattacks have analysts guessing what the next attack will be, and why, and how they’ve been able to gain access to so much confidential information. Other countries around the world are gravely concerned about their cyber security posture as well. It stands to reason that if the Russians can breach highly classified information within the United States, what can’t they get into?
The question remains: how and when will the U.S. respond? Perhaps we already have? We’ll have to wait to find out.
