High-Profile DDoS Campaign Disrupts OpenAI’s Operations
OpenAI, celebrated for its groundbreaking generative AI tool, ChatGPT, recently experienced a series of intermittent disruptions. The company disclosed that these issues were a result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
About the attack
Starting from November 8, the AI giant began noticing frequent disruptions in its service. These irregularities were observed in both the main ChatGPT tool and its application programming interface (API). The problematic situation, which began around midday PST, was updated at about 19:49 PST on the same day. OpenAI informed that they observed peculiar traffic patterns, indicative of a DDoS attack, and they were taking prompt steps to resolve these issues.
Users relying on OpenAI services expressed their dissatisfaction on social platform X (formerly known as Twitter), citing continuous issues.
Anonymous Sudan Hackers Claim Responsibility
The international hacktivist collective, Anonymous Sudan, took the credit for these attacks. Through a statement on Telegram, the group specifically pointed out OpenAI as a primary target due to its supportive stance towards Israel. Recent events involving Israeli military action against Palestinian citizens have caused global controversy, and Anonymous Sudan accused OpenAI of adopting a partisan approach.
The malicious activities of Anonymous Sudan are not quite new. This year, they also claimed responsibility for a series of DDoS assaults on Swedish firms. They justified these actions as retribution for an incident involving desecration of the Quran near Turkish embassy in Stockholm. However, cybersecurity analysts strongly suspect that Anonymous Sudan operates under Russian influence, seeking to escalate anti-Western sentiments.
Conclusion
The recent DDoS attack on OpenAI is a stark reminder of the new age of cybersecurity risks that organizations face. Amidst escalating political tensions and the increasing complexity of cyber attacks, the pertinent responsibility for tech giants, like OpenAI, is to continually enhance their cybersecurity infrastructure.
