Swimming Australia website under 'cyber attack' after Mack Horton's 'drug cheat' remarks

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Swimming Australia website under ‘cyber attack’ after Mack Horton’s ‘drug cheat’ remarks

August 12, 2016

Swimming Australia's website has come under a suspected cyber attack, days after a similar problem shut down the Australian census.

The denial of service (DoS) issue came in the wake of Australian swimmer Mack Horton's outspoken comments that his Chinese rival Sun Yang was a "drug cheat", with suggestions the matters could be linked.

Those attempting to log onto the Swimming Australia website on Thursday night and Friday were greeted with the brief screen message: "Checking your browser before accessing swimming.org.au."

While the site has continued to operate, it has deployed software to check the veracity of every browser accessing the page to ensure they are legitimate.

The ABC has reported that the Swimming Australia site was "operating in an 'under attack' mode", and Swimming Australia was using software to check every browser accessing the page to ensure they were legitimate.

The ABC reported that the attack was understood to have been referred to Federal Government officials for investigation.

A Swimming Australia spokesman told Fairfax Media that the organisation "won't be making any comment on this story at this time".

The spokesperson stated "our complete focus is on supporting our athletes to achieve peak performance in their events in Rio."

Image: A screenshot saying "Checking your browser before accessing swimming.org.au"

The Swimming Australia website can be viewed at www.swimming.org.au

11th July 2016 - AIS helping protect athletes from cybercrime

18th November 2015 - Safety and Security challenges for protecting stadia and sport venues

11th May 2015 - Swimming looks to Rio and beyond with key high performance appointments

27th October 2014 - Swimming Australia encourages positive psychology coaching initiative

13th March 2014 - PaySmart continues to set industry benchmark in data security

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