(Ottawa, Ontario – October 4, 2018) – The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) is excited to witness the conclusion of the two-year investigation into a security breach of its private network. Today’s United States Department of Justice indictment is the result of global cooperation among law enforcement and anti-doping organizations. We commend the groundbreaking work of investigators on both sides of the border whose technical and legal expertise has led to an indictment of seven individuals directly linked to the illegal cyber activity.
Given the broad scope of this criminal activity, it is appropriate that the individuals who committed this cybercrime against the CCES and other anti-doping organizations and the organizations affected in other fields have been identified and are being sanctioned.
What happened to the CCES, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is a sobering reminder of our sector’s vulnerability to targeted cyberattacks. As organizations entrusted with athletes’ private information, we must make cyber security a priority, and continually improve in our efforts to prevent and detect intrusions.
For background reading, the CCES published an FAQ after the outage related to the security breach in 2016.
About the CCES
The CCES is an independent, national, not-for profit organization with a responsibility to administer the Canadian Anti-Doping Program. We recognize that good sport can make a great difference for individuals, communities and our country. The CCES acknowledges funding, in part, from the Government of Canada. We are committed to making sport better by working collaboratively to activate a values-based and principle-driven sport system; protecting the integrity of sport from the negative forces of doping and other unethical threats; and advocating for sport that is fair, safe and open to everyone.