Cycling: Hackers Attack Top Doping Lab

International computer hackers providing the material for dirty tricks intended to undermine the fight against drug-taking in sport might seem the stuff of thriller writers but to the director of France's main anti-doping laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry, south of Paris, it appears to be reality.

The computer crimes department of the French police has launched an inquiry after hackers broke into the internal computer system and sent confidential material by letters and email in an apparent attempt to discredit the laboratory. "An inquiry is under way but I do not wish to comment as the facts may be linked to one of the cases we have ongoing," said the laboratory director, Jacques de Ceaurriz.

Pierre Bordry, the president of France's anti-doping agency, which runs the laboratory, said he had asked for the computer system to be better protected against intruders. "We have been informed that hackers have penetrated the system and used documents for a campaign of denigration which is simply scandalous."

The letters and emails, dated in the first fortnight of September and signed with a false name, were sent to bodies such as the International Cycling Union, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee as well as journalists and other anti-doping laboratories accredited by Wada.

The laboratory has been involved in high-profile doping cases including the Tour de France winner Floyd Landis's positive test for testosterone. Landis has denied doping.