Hacking of large companies is the order of the day. Hackers always look for the slightest security breach so they can attack any server connected to the Internet, take control, and steal all kinds of personal data inside. In 2024, website database thefts have been truly worrying. But there is still a year ahead. And, today, we arrive with a new massive hack. This time, to the well-known Internet Archive platform.
Internet Archive is a website that, as its name indicates, seeks to create one of the largest historical libraries of everything related to technology. In it we can find all kinds of very old content, and already extinct on other sites, to be able to download it. From simple product manuals that are more than 100 years old, to classic books, retro games, classic programs, old operating systems… everything we can imagine. In addition, it also has The Wayback Machine, a “time machine” that allows us to travel to the past to see what any website was like on a certain previous date thanks to its massive cache.
A few hours ago, users who entered Internet Archive found a warning message warning them of the hack. This message was included directly in the website’s JavaScript so that it would appear to everyone, and it indicates that, due to a catastrophic security breach, they have taken over the platform’s database with information on more than 31 million users.
Specifically, the hackers managed to dump a 6.4 GB file called “ia_users.sql” directly from the Interner Archive servers. This file contains all the user information, from email addresses to user nicknames, passwords (hashed) and other data of interest.
Check if your data is affected
The Internet Archive database is already uploaded to the well-known Have I Been Pwned platform. If you want to check if your data is among those stolen, all you have to do is go to this website and search for your email to see the list of services in which said email appears.
As we can see, in our case the account is among the filtered ones. And it tells us the information that has been stolen along with the email in the database.
And now what? As we can see, hackers now have access to our email, nickname, and password (although this is protected, and at the moment they cannot access it. Therefore, the first thing we must do is enter our Internet Archive account and change the password with a new, secure and random one to prevent hackers, if they obtain the passwords in plain text, from being able to use them. You must also be very attentive to possible deceptions or scams that they may carry out using this information.
New attacks against Internet Archive
Unfortunately, the theft of the database does not remove the Internet Archive from the spotlight. A group of hackers (this time, BlackMeta) has carried out a massive, 6-hour DDoS attack in front of Archive.org in protest of US support for Israel.
𝐒𝐍_𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀
@Sn_darkmeta
The Internet archive has and is suffering from a devastating attack We have been launching several highly successful attacks for five long hours and, at this moment, all their systems are completely down.
second round | New attack
09/10/2024 Duration 6 hours… https://t.co/EBeBE9YlwG https://t.co/SL9lz4gSldOctober 9, 2024 • 20:21
273
582
And, it seems, he will not be the only one. Therefore, if you experience problems trying to access this website in the next few days, it is probably because, once again, it is under attack.
