Our Daily Breach 2024/10/11

Before we begin our sermon today, I have a confession to make: I am guilty of lazy network management. Tech gods forgive me, for I have been using a GUI to block traffic to/from eleven countries. One of those is Russia.

The downside of this broad-stroke network policy is that I can't access websites based in those countries. One such site is Rapid Assessment Delivery Cooperative (RAD COP) a Russian cybersecurity collective with around 40 members. They offer consultations, security engineering, auditing, penetration testing, and even technical writing. Based on my research, they seem to be the first employee-owned cybersecurity organization.

I know this about RAD COP because I got around my own self-imposed network limitation without an allow list by using the Internet Archive's wayback machine to view recent historical snapshots of the website. It's hacky, but effective if you only want to visit websites in a read-only capacity.

Unfortunately - that is no longer a viable solution because the Pro-Palestinian hacktivist group sn_blackmeta launched a relentless DDoS attack and breached the Internet Archive because it is hosted in the United States.

The group so far has stolen email addresses, usernames, and b-crypt hashed passwords, and other internal data of 31 million users as recent as September 28th, 2024 as reported and more importantly, verified, by the folks at BleepingComputer.

While this started as a venting post, I want to acknowledge the broader frustrations that many feel towards the Global North and its imperial mode of living. The desperation to shed light on human rights violations, including genocides, is real and deeply rooted in historical injustice. However, targeting a resource like the Internet Archive—an invaluable public repository that preserves unaltered, accessible records of atrocities, including the Nakba and Zionist violence—seems counterproductive.

The Internet Archive plays a crucial role in documenting marginalized histories that are often erased or manipulated by dominant powers. Disrupting or destroying such a resource inadvertently undermines the very cause the attackers seek to elevate. Instead of amplifying awareness, it risks silencing the voices and stories that are essential to understanding and addressing these injustices.

Burning down a digital library that preserves truth feels less like a bold act of defiance and more like a blow to the collective memory we rely on to fight for a just future. The ends don’t justify the means when they compromise the very evidence that could drive meaningful change.

Hold on, I came here for the rage bait!

Okay fine, for those angry about losing access to Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) because of this, I feel your pain too. Let me leave you with this sermon from Brother \0:

"Give us this day our daily breach, and share us our trespasses,
As we attack those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us to evil. Amen."