Sports lab hacked

last updated 8 January 2015

Paris

A hacker has stolen data from computers at the French lab that accused American cyclist Floyd Landis of doping. Landis, who won the Tour de France in July, is challenging lab results that show he had high levels of testosterone in his system during the race. He claims the Chatenay-Malabry laboratory uses unscientific analytical procedures. French Anti-Doping Agency President Pierre Bordry said the "hack attack" was part of a conspiracy to make the lab look unreliable. "Intruders penetrated the lab's information systems and used material taken inside in order to denigrate the lab," he said. In addition to taking files, the hacker forged letters to other labs, saying he was a lab employee blowing the whistle about botched tests. But the letters were obviously fakes, riddled with grammatical errors and misspelled names.