WADA surprise: McAfee claims sports watchdog hacked

Was the World Anti-Doping Agency hacked during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver?

The Montreal-based, International Olympic Committee spinoff responsible for stamping out drug use and abuse in sports was involved in collecting urine and blood samples from athletes before and during the Games. WADA accredited a temporary laboratory at the Richmond Olympic Oval and its key executives and staff stayed at the Renaissance Pinnacle Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Here is the WADA independent observer report on the Vancouver Games.

On Aug. 3, McAfee published its Revealed: Operation Shady RAT white paper showing numerous governments, corporations and non-profit agencies had been hacked, including WADA and the IOC. In WADA's case, its systems were infiltrated for 14 months, beginning in August 2009. That period included WADA's Vancouver 2010 responsibilities.

McAfee hasn't assigned blame, but the source of the hacker attacks is widely believed to be in China.

In a statement provided 2010 Gold Rush from WADA Director General David Howman, the organization admitted it has been hacked before but claimed the system used to keep track of athlete records is safe and secure.

More from Howman:

"Following the release of the McAfee white paper on Operation Shady Rat, WADA can confirm that it has been in communication with McAfee and is investigating thoroughly the reported cyber intrusions.

"WADA has a highly-sophisticated security system in place which is managed by ISS (IBM), and with the information available to it ISS has to-date found no evidence of this corruption.

"In February 2008 WADA experienced a security breach of its email system and consequently filed a complaint with the Quebec State Police and co-operated with an FBI investigation.

"Nothing was compromised and following the intrusion WADA's security experts upgraded the Agency's firewalls.

"WADA's Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS), which is on a completely different server to WADA's emails, has never been compromised and remains a highly-secure system for the retention of athlete data.

"At this stage, WADA has no evidence from its security experts of the intrusions as listed by McAfee and the Agency has yet to be convinced that they took place."