British Olympic teams hit by hackers?

It makes sense really. If you can cheat in sports by injecting steroids or taking speed or videotaping a competitor’s practices, why not hack into their computers as well? According to the Times of London, that’s exactly what happened to systems at both GB Canoeing (you know, with paddles) and the Amateur Boxing Association of England.

From the story:

“This wasn’t kids mucking around,” Paul King, the ABAE chief executive, said. “This was a real professional job.”

Why, you might ask? For data, of course:

“Take Alexey Tishchenko [the Olympic champion from Russia], for instance, who Frankie Gavin [the British lightweight who has qualified for Beijing] beat in the World Championships recently. No one had beaten him for four years and our postfight analysis – what we did to beat him that no one else had done – might well be useful.”

The source of these attacks: Computers in China? But that could mean anything as unpatched PCs in China are a favorite hacker target these days, no matter what country you hail from.