Internet Archive "Wayback Machine" Hacked

 

For users of the Internet Archive, also called the "Wayback Machine," Thursday October 10 was an unpleasant surprise when users discovered the site was offline.  What happened was the website was hacked. When people logged on, instead of the normal page, they saw this message:

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!

 

Bleeping Computer would say, "The text 'HIBP' refers to the Have I Been Pwned data breach notification service created by Troy Hunt, with whom threat actors commonly share stolen data to be added to the service."

 

The nature of the hack seems to be in dispute. Some are calling it a Directed Denial of Service attack. Others are calling it a data breach that "stole a user authentication database containing 31 million unique records."

 

Forbes quoted a cybersecurity expert as saying, "“Hacking the past is usually technically impossible but this data breach is the closest we may ever come to it. ... The stolen dataset includes personal information but at least the stolen passwords are encrypted."

 

Forbes would also say "While the identity behind the data breach exposing 31 million users remains unclear, the pro-Palestinian hacktivist group Black Meta has claimed responsibility for the DDoS attacks that took down The Internet Archive." 

Sources: Forbes, Bleeping Computer.com, Cyber News  

Bixyl Shuftan