Zendesk Breach Exposes 800,000 Internet Archive Support Requests

The Internet Archive has once again found itself at the center of a cybersecurity incident. Hackers have claimed they gained access to Zendesk tokens—the user support platform utilized by the Internet Archive to handle inquiries. Using these tokens, the attackers conducted a mass email campaign.

On Sunday, users who had interacted with the Internet Archive through Zendesk received emails in which the hackers claimed to have compromised access tokens. Journalists from The Register also received such an email after requesting comments from the organization.

The email criticized the Internet Archive for failing to replace the compromised API keys, which had been made public in a GitLab repository, even two weeks after the leak. According to the message, the Zendesk token allowed the attackers to access 800,000 user requests sent to [email protected] since 2018. The hackers emphasized that this data had fallen into unauthorized hands, and if it hadn’t been them, someone else would have exploited the vulnerability.

It remains unclear whether this incident is related to a previous attack on the Internet Archive’s website, during which intruders temporarily altered site content and accused the organization of poor data security. Numerous similar emails reported on social media confirm the scale of the breach.

As of publication, neither the Internet Archive’s social media accounts nor its blog contained any official statements regarding the incident. Previously, the organization had sent out an apology email and a request for donations to help recover from a cyberattack, emphasizing the importance of user and community support.

In light of these events, many users have expressed doubts about whether they can trust the Internet Archive with their personal information, including banking details.