Hackers broke into the Internet Archive on Wednesday afternoon. They leaked a lot of data, including email addresses, names and encrypted passwords.

Hackers stole data from 31 million Internet Archive accounts. This emerged from a message on the website that said the data would appear on the “Have I Been Pwned” website.

Senseless cyber attack

The notification was set via a JavaScript framework after The Internet Archive suffered a DDoS attack. Unlike the cyber attack on Duvel Moortgat earlier this year, the hackers in this case did not demand a ransom. A Have I Been Pwned employee confirmed to Bleeping Computer that he had obtained a file containing email addresses, names, encrypted passwords and other internal data for 31 million individual accounts. After verification, the data proved to be valid.

The so-called “According to their X account, they just do it because they can. No explanation, no reason, no demands,” said an Internet Archive archivist. The website has increased its security following this leak, The Verge knows.

Have I Been Pwned is a free database that allows users to check whether their data has been involved in a breach or leaked by cybercriminals. The company said via X that 54 percent of accounts had been involved in previous breaches.