The Internet Archive website remains down for the moment. | Image credit-PhoneArena
HIBP was created by Tony Hunt who told Bleeping Computer that the threat actor shared the Internet Archive’s authentication database about a week and a half ago. It is a 6.4GB SQL file named “ia_users.sql.”The data it contains includes authentication information for registered members of the Internet Archive (aka Wayback Machine) such as email addresses, password change timestamps, screen names, Bcrypt-hashed passwords, and other data.
Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle tweets about a second DDoS attack on the Internet Archive that took place this morning. | Image credit-“X
Considering that the last timestamp on the file is September 28, 2024, we can assume that this was the date that the threat actor was able to steal the database from the Internet Archive. HIBP’s Hunt says that he will add the data to his site allowing those concerned about the data breach to type in their email addresses to see if their authentication info was part of the data breach.
Recently the Internet Archive has been hit with two separate DDoS attacks. Known as a distributed denial-of-service attack, these occur when an attacker tries to overwhelm a website by overloading the site with malicious traffic preventing legitimate users of the site from accessing it. The second such attack hit the website this morning.
If you’ve ever set up an account with the Internet Archive, you probably should change your passwords immediately.
