Internet Archive under attack, criminals brag about having “your data”

The Internet Archive, the non-profit digital library known as the Wayback Machine, suffered another significant cyberattack that put its users’ data at risk.

The hackers say they have access to more than 800,000 support tickets and have sent emails to people who have interacted with the organization since 2018.

“It is disappointing to see that even after being notified of the breach 2 weeks ago, IA has not made a proper effort to circulate the many API keys exposed in their gitlab keys,” the letter read. Email sent on Sunday.

The critics went on to explain that they have taken over Zendesk’s Internet Archive customer service platform with the ability to view tickets or information requests that date back six years.

“Whether you were trying to ask a general question, or request the removal of your site from the Wayback Machine—your data is now in the hands of some random guy. If it’s not me , it would be someone else,” added the hackers. .

Newsweek reached the Internet Archive for comments on X.

One day earlier, a member of the Internet Archive staff took to Reddit to speak out the first hack. They highlighted the group’s efforts to preserve the land and restore services.

“Teams got the site back safe and secure as a priority. They took no days last week. They’re not taking any this week,” a staff member wrote. “I spent today talking to tired and thoughtful people who are putting in the best they can.”

“A large number of our customers understand the situation. A few do not know and seem to think that we are not directly doing this work day and night. I have spent today talking to people who are tired and thinking about installing everything they can,” they added.

Security analysts expressed concern about the seriousness of the breach in October when the first major breach was revealed, and DDoS attacks took the site offline.

Jason Meller, VP of Product at 1Password, said Newsweek at the time: “Based on publicly available evidence, this site has been completely compromised. Due to the seriousness of this breach and until they have time to fully investigate, my strong recommendation is to avoid reading or using any files found on the site until they have said the ‘all clear.’

The DDoS attack was claimed by a self-described pro-Palestinian group known as SN_BlackMeta (also BlackMeta or DarkMeta). Although the group took credit for the DDoS attack, they did not mention this latest Zendesk data breach, which may have been carried out by a different threat actor.

The Internet Archive is an invaluable resource for historians, researchers, and the general public, preserving billions of web pages and digital content. This breach not only compromises user data but also raises concerns about the security of important historical records.

Dorian Sherman, founder of the digital archive platform Project Dara, wrote online, “It seems like this IA (Internet Archive) shortage is getting worse, day by day. KSF ( Knowledge Standards Foundation) and DARA were created in part to reduce the loss of centrally stored data, but we are not yet in a position to help.

“I really hope that we are not too late. As I say I am very concerned about all this and I have a very bad feeling,” he added.

Sherman suggested that not only is the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine website currently down, but that some of the archives may have been deleted.

“Evidence of DISAPPEARING PROPERTIES: Less than 4 years of @X Twitter blog GONE,” he said, sharing an image of the Wayback Machine archive page for the official X/Twitter blog.