The Internet Archive has faced DDOS attacks over the past few days, preventing users from accessing the site. Bizarrely, those responsible claim that they did this because “the archive belongs to the USA” and go on to condemn the US government for supporting Israel. It’s a strange assertion, considering the Internet Archive is a non-profit with no ties to the US government other than being based in the United States.
Additionally, the information for 31 million Internet Archive users has leaked. However, it’s not known if the two incidents are related.
Hacking group says it attacked Internet Archive to send pro-Palestinian message
SN_BLACKMETA, a pro-Palestinian hacktivist group has claimed responsibility for DDOSing the Internet Archive. The group’s leader gave the following reason for the attack:
“They are under attack because the archive belongs to the USA, and as we all know, this horrendous and hypocritical government supports the genocide that is being carried out by the terrorist state of ‘Israel.'”
Many have interpreted the message as the hacking group targeting the Internet Archive because it believes the organization is somehow connected to the United States Government. However, that’s not the case. The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that contains plenty of information that Israel and the US government would likely be happy to see erased forever.
The response to the attacks has been universally negative. Given the overwhelmingly positive perception of the Internet Archive, there are few worse online services for a group to attack to make a political point.
Unfortunately, the Internet Archive has suffered another blow besides the DDOS attack. According to Bleeping Computer, 31 million unique user records were stolen and released.
Users noted that when trying to access the site recently, a popup appeared stating, “Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach? It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!” Have I Been Pwned confirmed that the data breach was real and began emailing those who had signed up for alerts on Wednesday evening.
