The Internet Archive experienced a significant data breach that affected the personal information of 31 million users.
This incident first reported by Bleeping Computer, resulted in the exposure of email addresses, usernames, and encrypted passwords, leading cybersecurity professionals to advise users to change their passwords without delay.
The breach has sparked worries regarding data privacy and the overall security of the well-known digital library, particularly recognized for its Wayback Machine feature.
The breach, discovered on October 9, exposed the personal information of millions of users due to an exploit in a JavaScript (JS) library on the Internet Archive’s site.
A pop-up notification informed visitors, saying: “Ever felt like the Internet Archive operates on sticks and is always close to a severe security failure? That moment has arrived. We just revealed 31 million of you on HIBP!”
The notification referenced Have I Been Pwned? (HIBP), a service that allows users to check if their information has been affected by a data breach.
The compromised database, which has been made available to cybersecurity professionals, included email addresses, screen names, passwords, and other sensitive internal information related to 31 million unique emails.
Troy Hunt, the creator of HIBP, verified that he had obtained a 6.4 GB file of the database from the hackers. He also pointed out that more than half of the email addresses had already been involved in earlier breaches.
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Response From The Founder
Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, addressed the data breach and the persistent Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks impacting the platform.
In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), he stated: “Here’s what we know: we have successfully fended off the DDoS attack for the time being; there has been a defacement of our site due to the JS library; and user data, including usernames, emails, and salted-encrypted passwords, has been compromised.
Here’s what we’ve done: we’ve disabled the JS library, cleaned our systems, and improved security measures. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.”
Even with the initial attempts to repel the attack, the Internet Archive’s website, archive.org, and its Wayback Machine have faced sporadic outages. In response to the breach, the organization has been actively cleaning its systems and enhancing security measures.
Culprit Behind The Internet Archive Attack
The account known as “SN_BlackMeta” took credit for the DDoS attacks, claiming their operation extended over five hours and asserting that they had conducted “highly successful attacks.”
This group has a history of targeting financial institutions in the Middle East and is affiliated with pro-Palestinian hacktivist movements.
In a post on X, they stated, “The Internet Archive is enduring a catastrophic attack. We have carried out several highly successful attacks for five continuous hours, and currently, all their systems are entirely offline.”
A community note accompanying this post provided additional insight, stating: “This group asserts they targeted the Internet Archive because it ‘belongs to the USA … who support Israel,’ which is inaccurate.
The Archive operates as a nonprofit organization, independent of the US government, and contains numerous resources on Palestine that are currently inaccessible due to this attack.”
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