Nonprofit behind the Wayback Machine has suffered a cyberattack by "pro-Palestinian hacktivists" affecting 31 million users.

A group linked to a pro-Palestinian hacktivist movement has launched a catastrophic cyberattack revealing the details of 31 million people, compromising their email addresses and screen names.

An account on X under the name SN_BlackMeta claimed responsibility for the attack on The Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization, and implied that further attacks were planned. The Internet Archive is known for its digital library and the Wayback Machine. SN_BlackMeta has previously been linked to an attack against a Middle Eastern financial institution earlier this year, and a security firm has linked it to a pro-Palestinian hacktivist movement.

Encrypted passwords were also exposed and although these are relatively safe, users have been advised to change their passwords. And one expert has told Newsweek people should avoid browsing or using any files obtained from the site until it has declared an “all clear.”

  • @[email protected]English
    92•28 days ago

    I wouldn’t be claiming a hack on Internet Archive. It’s like boasting about setting fire to a library, almost literally.

  • TimeSquirrel
    52•28 days ago

    So many things they could target that’s related to the cause but they go for the fucking IA? Might as well burn down an orphanage. This is fucked up.

    • @[email protected]English
      20•28 days ago

      It’s hard to find a sufficient reason for a Palestinian to have done this. Seems likely others players had a hand.

  • @[email protected]English
    51•28 days ago

    Yeahhhh this one seems fishy. Unlike the “Handala Hacks” group (seemingly 100% an Iranian state affair) who basically doxxed Israeli citizens and security industry heads, where’s the play in this?

    • No ransomware attempt, just DDoS and data grab
    • Email and handles compromised, not major info like bank details or SSNs
    • VERY publicly pro-Palestine/Palestinian, makes zero mention of occupation, apartheid, civilian suffering, etc
    • Tortured ‘link’ between a non-profit .org and the US:Israel alliance as justification

    Psyops gonna psyop

    • @[email protected]English
      18•28 days ago

      Yeah, seems to be about driving wedges in the progressive movements. IA is often used to access information and store proof of it. Especially when governments, newspapers etc. sneaky edit out statements that are incriminating, be it morally or quite often legally.

      It is a tool heavily used by pro Palestinian and other progressive activists, with no reason to jeopardize it.

  • @[email protected]English
    36•28 days ago

    This act is so profoundly counter to increasing pro-Palestinian sentiment that I have to wonder if it was the fuckin’ Mossad that did it.

  • @[email protected]English
    29•28 days ago

    As a pro Palestinian I condemn this action but I won’t discredit the whole Palestinian support mouvement

  • @[email protected]English
    15•27 days ago

    Yeah, it’s totally not Israel, the country known for being great at hacking and is attacking multiple middle eastern countries at the moment.

  • @[email protected]English
    9•28 days ago

    False flag, no way that Palestinian supporters would do this. There’s simply no reason to. Someone else did for shits and giggles.

    • @[email protected]English
      7•27 days ago

      Tech-savy teenagers can pull of a “cyber attack” on a nonprofit. It doesn’t have to be a smart choice. Sometimes people just want to relieve their anger, break some shit, and claim it for whatever floats their boat right now.

      The evidence is absolute bullshit though. So I don’t believe it either.

  • @[email protected]English
    6•27 days ago

    Thanks to a bit of anonymous text on the disinformation machine of a fascist US billionaire, we finally know what’s up. Thank God for this achievement in journalism.

  • @[email protected]English
    -2•28 days ago

    Why the hell is anyone still storing actual passwords, even encrypted ones, in 2024? They should only be storing hashes and a salt that’s only retrievable on the backend.

    Edit: I stand corrected. Newsweek is just doing its usual shit job of reporting. They should know better than calling hashed passwords “encrypted” passwords.

    • @[email protected]English
      49•28 days ago

      They aren’t, newsweek is calling it encryption because they’re writing for normies. The leaked data includes bcrypt’ed passwords, so hash and per-password salt. Their choice of hashing function is not what you want to criticise the IA for.

      • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)English
        3•28 days ago

        bcrypt, to save you time.

        Anyway, I’d be curious to see that data. It also got my email that I only used for donations to IA. I wonder what data is associated with that email.
        Not sure where to start searching for that data.

      • AmidFuror
        -12•28 days ago

        Downvoted for “normies” because it appears to be any person whose specialized knowledge set does not include cryptography.

        • @[email protected]English
          15•28 days ago

          Every sys/devops and programmer will know what a hash is, salt at least the sys/devops.

          The general population though will be thinking of hash browns when hearing those terms and “encrypted” is absolutely close enough. So close that insisting on the difference in a non-technical context is definitely pedantic.

          • @[email protected]English
            6•28 days ago

            Damn, hash browns sound great right about now.

            And as a DevOps engineer, I’m going to be hungry every time I deal with passwords and api keys now.

          • AmidFuror
            2•28 days ago

            That’s my point. All news articles on technical and scientific topics are written for “normies,” including likely the commenter for many disciplines. Seemed to be used derogatorily to me, but I’ll concede I could have misinterpreted.