2012 » know precisely the challenge ahead. ' ' '

LONDON -- Medical data from some of the worlds leading athletes has been posted to the web and the World Anti-Doping Agency says Russians are to blame. Even the hackers seem to agree, adopting the name Fancy Bears -- a moniker long associated with the Kremlins electronic espionage operations.But as cybersecurity experts pore over the hackers digital trail, theyre up against a familiar problem. The evidence has been packed with possible red herrings -- including registry data pointing to France, Korean characters in the hackers code and a server based in California.Anybody can say they are anyone and its hard to disprove, said Jeffrey Carr, the chief executive of consulting firm Taia Global and something of a professional skeptic when it comes to claims of state-backed hacking.Many others in the cybersecurity industry see the WADA hack as a straightforward act of Russian revenge, but solid evidence is hard to find.Whats known is that it was only days after scores of Russian athletes were banned from the Olympic Games that suspicious looking emails began circulating . Purporting to come from WADA itself, the booby trapped messages were aimed at harvesting passwords to a sensitive database of drug information about athletes worldwide. Among other things, the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System carries information about which top athletes use otherwise-banned substances for medical reasons -- prize information for a spurned Olympic competitor seeking to embarrass its rivals.On Sept. 1 someone registered a website titled Fancy Bears Hack Team. A few days later, a Twitter account materialized carrying a similar name. Just after midnight Moscow time on Sept. 13, the Fancy Bears Twitter account came alive, broadcasting the drugs being taken by gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles, seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and other U.S. Olympians. It followed up Thursday with similar information about the medication used by British cyclists Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, among many others.There is no suggestion any of the athletes broke any rules, but Russians seized on the leak as evidence that U.S. and British players were using forbidden drugs with the blessing of anti-doping officials.Hypocrisy Russias embassy to London tweeted in reaction to the news. Kremlin channel RT broadcast a cartoon showing a WADA official picking up a bulky American players steroid bottle with a smile. All good! Youre cleared to compete! he says.Citing law enforcement sources, WADA said the attacks are originating out of Russia. Russian officials dismissed the allegation; in an email, WADA said it wouldnt be commenting further.With little to go on, independent investigators have still made some intriguing connections.Virginia-based intelligence firm ThreatConnect said that whoever compromised WADA did so using websites registered through an obscure domain name company that also set up the fake sites used in a variety of other hacks blamed on the Kremlin, including the one that hit the Democratic National Committee. In a telephone interview, the companys chief intelligence officer, Rich Barger said he had been cautious at first about tying the WADA breach to Russian hackers but that confidence is certainly growing as more and more people weigh in and lend their voice.Even the meaning of the name Fancy Bears is unclear. California-based threat intelligence firm CrowdStrike has long applied that nickname to an allegedly Russian state-backed group, but the hackers adoption isnt necessarily a brazen acknowledgement of CrowdStrikes research. It might be an attempt to hold it up to ridicule. Which interpretation the group favors hasnt been made clear. Repeated messages to email addresses associated with Fancy Bears have gone unreturned.Fancy Bears website doesnt necessarily provide any more insight. Some its artistry appears to have been lifted from a Russian clip art page. But tech podcaster Vince Tocce also found Korean script in the sites code -- characters which vanished shortly after he made his discovery public . In a telephone interview, he said that showed how difficult it was to take anything for granted.Some pieces of Fancy Bears infrastructure were almost certainly structured to sow confusion.The site, for example, appears to be hosted in California but was registered at an address in the town of Pomponne, east of Paris, under the name Jean Guillalime.A man residing at that address, Jean-Francois Guillaume, told The Associated Press the registry information was bogus and that he was mystified as to why the hackers had picked on him.I have absolutely nothing to do with this, he said, adding that he ran a consulting shop and a flower business and wasnt particularly interested in sports. I dont know any Russians, he said.White Ultra Boost 2018 . The 31-year-old Spain midfielder hasnt played since Madrid lost in the Copa del Rey final to Atletico Madrid in May due to back and foot injuries. Grey Ultra Boost 2018 . 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Pence singled in the winning run with no outs in the ninth inning to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.Warm-up matches, say players and coaches, are for getting miles in legs, adapting to local climes, choosing a team and forming a plan for that XI. If this is the criteria, then Englands three days - it was supposed to be four, but for a soggy outfield - at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong can be filed under successes.The most important selection headache was solved as Alastair Cook hopped off a plane at Chittagong Airport on Monday afternoon, back in time for his 134th Test match, which will make him Englands most-capped player, overtaking Alec Stewart. The plan for Cook, to head home for the birth of his second child, could hardly have gone better. On Tuesday, as the rest of the squad enjoy a day on the golf course or by the pool, Cook will head to the nets; he felt in fine fettle on his week-long jaunt to Bangladesh during the ODI series, and two days training should be adequate for a man of his experience.What of the other ten players, then? Haseeb Hameed and Ben Duckett, the candidates to open with Cook, had fine weekends, each living up to their billing. After scoring his third and fourth half-centuries and not being dismissed across 164 deliveries, Duckett will surely debut, but Hameeds efforts mean it will likely be from No.4.The sight of Gary Ballance wandering out after tea, only when Hameeds 125-ball 57 had been retired, seemed to confirm there was a vacancy in the middle order. Ballance was another to go unbeaten over the two innings - with 27 then 36 - but he lacked comfort or fluency. Jos Buttlers chances seem to be over for now (he made 4, including a dropped catch, before slicing to point), although it would be a great surprise if he does not play at some stage during the seven Tests before Christmas; Trevor Bayliss, Englands coach, remains desperate to get him in.Perhaps the most heartening aspect of Ducketts performances was that he displayed various gears. Sure, Saturdays innings was a mighty impressive display of dash and timing, but on Monday, he dug in; his first 25 runs took 70 balls before he scored 27 off his next 21. The unorthodoxy displayed during the ODI series - when he was not at his most fluent, but battled hard - was back, with reverse sweeps and peculiar scoring areas. By lunch on Monday, Bayliss had seen enough, even if the birthday boy (22 today) wanted to bat on.Hameed conformed to type. His forward defensive is an oft-seen, elegant lunge, with the ball seldom failing to connect with his bats midddle.dddddddddddd. He leaves as much as he can, off seam and spin, but does have boundary options, seen most notably when he sent three consecutive deliveries from Ebadat Hossain for four with a straight drive, a late cut, then a pull. For all the Boycott talk, Bangladeshs bowling coach Courtney Walsh thinks he resembles Mike Atherton, but his team-mates are reminded of Joe Root in India in 2012 - boyish, skinny (and running plenty of twos as a result) but ready. A debut surely awaits.Root will bat at No 3, with the moveable feast of allrounders Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow between No.5 and No.7; it is unclear in which order they will appear, but all three have plenty of responsibility in the field, so it may be fluid. Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid, who was kept under wraps here, will follow, with Gareth Batty likely to beat Zafar Ansari to the third spinners position, and Stuart Broad batting at No.11. All eleven players will have first-class hundreds.England learnt just as much in the field, and improved markedly as the bowlers located their rhythm and acclimatised to the searing heat on a flat pitch. There were two dropped catches in 44 overs on Saturday, but none in 75 on Sunday, while Root will have plenty to feed back to Cook about field placings. Both Bairstow and Buttler have had a go behind the stumps, and three short legs have been trialled too, but Hameed seems the favoured option.Certainly, all-out attack with the new ball - which did not swing much for Woakes - seems unlikely, and Root soon had close catchers in front of the bat instead of a packed cordon. The lack of swing, coupled with the morning session hosting the most brutal heat of the day, may see a defensive approach early on. While reverse was not found here - perhaps because the outfield was more vegetable patch than lawn and the pitch was flat and unabrasive - England expect to find it at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.Finn all but confirmed the plan to use three seamers (of which he does not think he will be one) and three spinners - pending a pitch inspection on Wednesday, of course. But the last lesson England learned here came from Bangladesh themselves: by including in their 14-man squad four specialist spinners and just two seamers - who may not even both play - the tourists know precisely the challenge ahead. ' ' '