Cyber Incident Victim: Brazilian Confederation of Modern Pentathlon
Date:
Aug 2016
Location:
Brazil
Summary
Anonymous Brazil conducted cyber attacks during the Rio Olympics opening ceremony, launching DDoS attacks that disrupted multiple Brazilian government and sports-related websites, including the Brazilian Confederation of Modern Pentathlon. Subsequently, the group leaked personal, financial, and login credentials—including hashed passwords—from several sports confederations' domains and claimed to expose sensitive data of high-profile officials linked to the Games. The attacks were part of a protest against the Olympics, with Anonymous urging further disruptive actions and citing prior demonstrations against major sports events in the country.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 3 techniques |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On August 5, 2016, coinciding with the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics, the hacktivist group Anonymous Brazil launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against multiple Brazilian government and Olympic-related websites. The initial wave of attacks disrupted access to the federal government’s official Olympics portal (brasil2016.gov.br), the Rio de Janeiro State Government portal (rj.gov.br), the Ministry of Sports (esporte.gov.br), the Brazilian Olympic Committee (cob.org.br), and the Rio 2016 Olympics official site (rio2016.com). These attacks forced several sites offline during a period of high global visibility. Anonymous Brazil publicly claimed responsibility, framing the operation as a protest against the Olympics and alleging systemic corruption tied to the event.
In a secondary phase of the attack, the group exfiltrated and leaked sensitive data from several Brazilian sports confederation websites, including the Brazilian Confederation of Modern Pentathlon (pentatlo.org.br), the Brazilian Handball Confederation (brasilhandebol.com.br), the Brazilian Confederation of Boxing (cbboxe.com.br), and the Brazilian Triathlon Confederation (cbtri.org.br). The leaked data, distributed in CSV files, contained personal information, financial details, and login credentials—including hashed passwords—of registered users. Anonymous also asserted it had obtained and released personal details of high-profile individuals, specifically naming the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the Governor of Rio de Janeiro, the Minister of Sport, the President of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, and three unnamed businessmen allegedly involved in corruption. The group further called on supporters to use the Tor network and participate in additional DDoS attacks against Brazilian targets. By August 6, all affected websites had been restored to operational status. This incident mirrored prior Anonymous Brazil actions, notably their 2014 protests against the FIFA World Cup, which included website defacements following a ban on Guy Fawkes masks in Rio. The attacks highlighted ongoing tensions between activist groups and Brazilian authorities during major international events.