CCES – The Canadian Centre for Ethics and Sport (CCES) email system is now back up and running. On October 24, we shut down our email and Internet access after discovering that we were the target of a cyber attack.

Working with a leading cyber security firm and law enforcement officials, we’ve fortified the layers of protection around our IT systems to protect the personal data of athletes who are part of the Canadian Anti-Doping Program (CADP).

We apologize sincerely for any frustration and inconvenience this may have caused athletes, national and multi-sport organizations, and business partners. We’re grateful for your patience and understanding as we return to normal operations.

If you sent us an email recently and haven’t had a reply, there’s a good chance we never received it. Please send it again or call us at (613) 521-3340 or 1-800-672-7775.

Clearly, we’re concerned about the security breach and we’ll be monitoring the situation very closely. While we know our system was improperly accessed, the experts can’t confirm that any confidential data was stolen and they tell us that we may never know.

Following similar attacks against the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the hackers released medical information about some athletes who had applied for Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE), where treatment of an athlete’s condition or illness requires medication that is included on WADA’s Prohibited List.

Both organizations have vigorously defended those athletes, and that is exactly what the CCES would do under the same circumstances. The global anti-doping movement will not be dissuaded from its efforts to create a level playing field for clean athletes around the world.

WADA has cautioned athletes to never click on links in suspicious-looking emails. Access to WADA’s ADAMS system was disabled for a short period of time after WADA learned about a phishing email campaign targeting high-performance athletes who are subject to the World Anti-Doping Code.

As Canada’s national anti-doping agency, one of our most important responsibilities is the collection and protection of private information from high-performance athletes across dozens of different sports. For the vast majority of these athletes, the personal information we have on file is limited to names, addresses and telephone numbers only. For some, CCES also maintains information about athlete whereabouts. For a small minority of athletes, we collect personal information related to applications for TUEs.

Should you have questions or concerns about this situation, please contact CCES by calling (613) 521-3340 or 1 800-672-7775. You can also find a series of Questions and Answers on the home page of our website at www.cces.ca.