Hack of Anti-Doping Agency Poses New Ethical Questions

The World Anti-Doping Agency's database has been hacked, and a group that has sarcastically adopted the name "Fancy Bear" -- a designation given by the cybersecurity industry to a suspected Russian government-sponsored hacking operation -- has published data about the agency's approval of the use of banned substances by some U.S. athletes for medical reasons.

It would be easy to imagine that Russian intelligence would order a team of hackers to break into WADA. The organization has accused Russia of running a government-sanctioned system of doping in sports. Its highly convincing findings have led to a ban on some Russian athletes at the Rio Olympics and to the ouster of the entire Russian team from this year's Paralympic games. Russian officials protested that other nations were no better, but these objections -- which were in line with a Russian tradition of whataboutism -- were swept aside. So, from a cui bono point of view, it makes sense that Russians would try to discredit WADA.