Russian spies reportedly tried to make it look like North Korea hacked the Olympics
Hackers weren't just out to cause mischief at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Officials in the U.S. now believe Russian spies to be the source of a Feb. 9 hack that occurred during the event's opening ceremony. More troublingly, the perpetrators of the hack apparently tried to make it look as though it was all the work of North Korean agents.
A Saturday report from the Washington Post notes that analysts believe the hack was a retaliatory action against the International Olympic Committee.
In Dec. 2017, the IOC formally suspended the Russian Olympic Committee from participating in the following year's Winter Olympics events. Russian athletes with no previous drug violations and a history of submitting to testing were allowed to compete under the "Olympic Athletes of Russia" (OAR) banner, but their home country's flag and national anthem were banned.
Russia has a long and problematic history with Olympic bans. Catch yourself up right here.
The Saturday WaPo report doesn't get into the specifics of how GRU operatives -- GRU is Russia's CIA equivalent -- went about making the hack seem like North Korea's work. But it does note that GRU "had access to as many as 300 Olympic-related computers" as of early February.
In addition, officials also believe GRU agents hacked routers in South Korea sometime in January, installing malware that could then be exploited as the Winter Games kicked off in early February. This could explain some of the disruptions that occurred on Feb. 9.
While it's important to note that all of this information is attributed to anonymous U.S. officials, there is a history here. After Russia's track-and-field team was banned from the 2016 Olympics, Russian hackers -- from the GRU, according to WaPo -- stole drug test results and medical records belonging to a number of notable U.S. athletes.
The data included confidential information about Simone Biles, Serena and Venus Williams, and women's basketball star Elena Delle Donne. It was later released by Fancy Bear, the Russian government-connected hacker group that is believed to have been played a role in a number of significant cyberattacks, notably including the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee.
Topics Cybersecurity Olympics Politics
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
