ChatGPT Allegedly Targeted by Anonymous Sudan DDoS Attack

  • By Steven
  • Published: Nov 10, 2023
  • Last Updated: Nov 23, 2023

ChatGPT Targeted by Anonymous Sudan

OpenAI has suffered a successful DDoS attack following the first-ever DevDay—where OpenAI announced ChatGPT-4 Turbo and the GPT Store. OpenAI’s ChatGPT launch was nearly a year ago and has since become the mainstream solution for AI tasks. The software hosts a hearty 180.5 million users, many of whom use the software for professional tasks. The DDoS attack is alarming, not because it happened, but because of who claims the event—Russian-backed Anonymous Sudan.

How Did the Attack Occur? 

Developers and users were first to feel the impact; outages repeatedly downed ChatGPT and its connected tools. The service outages are presumably a symptom of what OpenAI suggests as a DDoS assault. “DDoS” refers to Denial of Service, where malicious actors target a vulnerable application or infrastructure; in DDoS attacks, the assailants flood the vulnerable gateway with requests, halting the flow of data and causing a subsequent outage. At the time of this writing, the ChatGPT Incident Report lists the offending “traffic pattern” as similar to a DDoS; however, nothing is definitive. 

What Do We Know About Anonymous Sudan? 

Hackers can orchestrate DDoS attacks against individuals or organizations; Anonymous Sudan is one “hacktivist” group that utilizes them alongside other breaching strategies. A form of internet activism, “hacktivists” tend to target systems for politically motivated goals; the arguably most well-known hacktivist group is Anonymous. Despite Anonymous Sudan’s name, the assailants are not Anonymous—nor Sudan. Anonymous Sudan’s targets recently have concerned Sweden’s NATO systems; subsequently, their motives for disrupting ChatGPT are unclear.

How Did OpenAI Admit to the Breach? 

ChatGPT, the API, Labs, and Playground experienced sporadic service, ultimately triggering an investigation on November 8th, 2023. Presumably, the threat response included downing all impacted software while experts assessed the situation. Over the following hours, they launched a quick fix, only to have outages persist. Their timeline indicates that almost eight hours after the initial issues began, the attack seemed consistent with DDoS.

How Might OpenAI Defend Against Future DDoS? 

OpenAI and other developers can protect against future DDoS attacks if they learn from past events. OpenAI’s current defenses are likely the reason this event wasn’t more destructive; whatever application or infrastructure vulnerability allowed for the attack could have resulted in far worse consequences than downed service. It could be that the DDoS was a decoy, playing out to divert resources from other areas of the system. In the future, OpenAI will likely implement more server-level protections, robust network hardware, and an axillary service of defensive resources. 

What Should Parties Do in the Aftermath of the Breach? 

Although this DDoS attack did not expose consumer data, it could have. If OpenAI had not taken proactive measures before the attack, its results may have devastated account holders. OpenAI’s preventative acts have allowed users to secure their information before another breach. Those who care about their cybersecurity and identity credentials must protect themselves despite a breach. Enable multi-factor authentication everywhere, use a password manager to maintain strong passwords, and consider monitoring services across all accounts. These are some acts that will help mitigate future breach damages.

About the Author
IDStrong Logo

Related Articles

Instagram Vulnerability Allowed Hackers Access to Control Your Phone

Security experts Check Point Research discovered a critical vulnerability while examining Instagra ... Read More

Alien Malware Infects More than 226 Mobile Apps and Steals Bank Data

As reported on September 24, 2020, by ZDNet and ThreatPost, a new strain of malware named “A ... Read More

Universal Health Systems Hit by Ransomware Attack

Universal Health Systems (UHS), a Fortune 500 company owning more than 400 hospitals across the co ... Read More

Exchange Server Bug Exposes a Big Risk to Hackers

Months after Microsoft released a patch to fix a serious flaw in MS Exchange Server, more than 61% ... Read More

Clients’ Bank Data Exposed in Blackbaud Ransomware Attack

Blackbaud software was victim to a ransomware attack last May, and new information suggests that c ... Read More

Latest Articles

What You Need to Know about the Delta Dental Data Breach

What You Need to Know about the Delta Dental Data Breach

Delta Dental is a dental insurance provider serving over 90 million Americans. It offers coverage in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. The company was established in 1966 in California as part of the Delta Dental Plans Association.

What You Need to Know about the Hot Topic Data Breach

What You Need to Know about the Hot Topic Data Breach

Hot Topic plays in the fashion, apparel, and shoe industry as a retailer of music-influenced apparel and accessories, such as jeans, tops, belts, dresses, pajamas, sunglasses, jewelry, and tees.

Google Voice Scams: What They Are and How to Stay Safe

Google Voice Scams: What They Are and How to Stay Safe

Google Voice scams continue to pose a risk for users of this service. Scammers continuously attempt to lure users into divulging their verification PIN code.

Featured Articles

How to Buy a House with Bad Credit

How to Buy a House with Bad Credit

Buying your own home is the American Dream, but it might seem out of reach to those with bad credit. However, the good news is, if your credit is less than perfect, you do still have options and in most cases, can still buy a home.

How Secure Is Your Password? Tips to Improve Your Password Security

How Secure Is Your Password? Tips to Improve Your Password Security

Any good IT article on computers and network security will address the importance of strong, secure passwords. However, the challenge of good passwords is that most people have a hard time remembering them, so they use simple or obvious ones that pose a security risk.

Top 10 Senior Scams and How to Prevent Them

Top 10 Senior Scams and How to Prevent Them

Senior scams are becoming a major epidemic for two reasons. First, seniors often have a lot of money in the bank from a life of working hard and saving.

Notice

By proceeding with this scan, you agree to let IDStrong run a Free Scan of supplied parameters of your personal information and provide free preliminary findings in compliance with our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice. You consent to us using your provided information to complete the Free Scan and compare it against our records and breach databases or sources to provide your Free preliminary findings report.

Rest assured: IDStrong will not share your information with third parties or store your information beyond what is required to perform your scan and share your results.

Free Identity Threat Scan
Instantly Check if Your Personal Information is Exposed
All fields below are required
Please enter first name
Please enter last name
Please enter a city
Please select a state
Please enter an age
Please enter an email address
Close