Internet Archive hacked, data breach impacts 31 million users.

The Internet Archive is both a relic of the IT landscape and a valuable resource. Created in 1996 by Brewster Kahle, this digital library provides free access to various collections of digitised material - the project is, of course, non-profit. Given its free and undoubtedly useful nature, the platform has gathered several million users over the years.

The Wayback Machine, one of the services offered by the site, allows users to search and access archives from the entire World Wide Web. On Wednesday, 9 October 2024, however, visitors to the site came across a pop-up directly addressed to the reader: ‘Have you ever felt like this site was functioning precariously and was constantly on the verge of a catastrophic security breach? It just happened.’

The hacker breached the site in question and stole the entire database, containing the data of 31 million users: including authentication information for registered members, their e-mail addresses, names, timestamps of password changes, passwords with Bcrypt hashtags, and other internal data.