WikiLeaks hack reveals effectiveness of crude

A Screenshot of Wiki Leaks Domain WHOIS information being updated
A Screenshot of Wiki Leaks Domain WHOIS information being updated
Author

31 August, 2017

The non-profit whistleblower Wikileaks website was hacked earlier today by a notorious hacking group namely OurMine. In the message it posted to the organisation's web address, OurMine jokingly begins to claim to be "testing your ..." before breaking off and reminding WikiLeaks about the time "you challenged us to hack you". "Wikileaks, remember when you challenged us to hack you?" read the message.

"WikiLeaks severs [sic] have not been hacked".

The hackers used the tried and true method of finding old passwords from previous large breaches, and trying them out on as many sites as possible in a process of elimination. OurMine basically convinced one of WikiLeaks' servers to make an incorrect connection and alter the binary code which gets converted into the human-readable webpage, so that it reflected that WikiLeaks.org was located on a server hosted by OurMine.

In addition, there is a statement from OurMine on twitter detailing the reason behind the hack.

OurMine first gained notoriety in 2016 for hijacking the social media accounts of several high-profile internet entrepreneurs including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey, among others.

It is unlikely that WikiLeaks servers were hacked, causing any long-term harm to its hacking operations.

Anonymous responded to OurMine's goading by describing the attack as a "fake defacement", having previously shared personal information of claimed members of OurMine.

Exactly how OurMine managed to hijack the WikiLeaks DNS is still unclear, with Gizmodo reporting it could have been malicious, more simply, someone at OurMine knew an individual with WikiLeaks administration access.

WikiLeaks' website has since been restored and the page shows the Vault 7 leaks, but doesn't have any clarification on the OurMine attack.


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