On February 9, a cyber-attack against the Winter Olympics’ computer servers threw the opening ceremony into minor chaos, with disruptions to the Internet and broadcast systems making it impossible for some computers to print attendees’ tickets—which resulted in many empty seats across the stadium. On Saturday evening, The Washington Post reported that Russian hackers were the culprit, having used North Korean I.P. addresses to cover their tracks in what’s called a “false-flag” operation.

According to two U.S. officials who spoke to the Post, hackers from the G.R.U.— the Russian military’s Main Intelligence Directorate—accessed South Korean routers in January, sending out malware on the first day of the Olympics. This allowed them to access as many as 300 Olympics-related computers. Fancy Bear, a hacking group connected to the G.R.U., released a set of e-mails purportedly stolen from Olympic officials earlier this month after the Games started—something they’ve done before, having made public a number of Olympians’ drug tests during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

Russia was banned from the Pyeongchang Olympics this year due to the Games’ severe crackdown on doping, something Russia has gotten into trouble about before. Athletes were only allowed to compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” (which is why you’ve been seeing the initials O.A.R. all over the place), and any medals won by Russia won’t be counted toward Russia’s overall take in historical records. Athletes were not allowed to wear their country’s flag on their uniforms, and when any Russian athlete won a medal, the Russian national anthem was not played at their medal ceremony.

The International Olympic Committee was considering reinstating Russia as early as this week, but G.R.U. is not exactly helping its case. A few Russian athletes have already been caught doping in Pyeongchang, including bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva and curler Aleksandr Krushelnitckii who, along with his partner, had to forfeit his bronze medal. Whether or not Russia is allowed back into the Games depends on the results of their final doping tests this week.