OpenAI Targeted in Cyberattack

OpenAI reported that recent outages are due to abnormal traffic patterns. Here’s what we know so far.

OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence technology and the creator of ChatGPT, recently experienced a service interruption attributed to a cyber-attack. The incident, which involved a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, caused periodic outages of the ChatGPT service.

A hacker group known as Anonymous Sudan is reportedly responsible for this disruption. According to a Bloomberg report, the group, which claims ties to Russia, acknowledged their involvement in the attack on their Telegram channel. They cited OpenAI’s alleged cooperation with Israel and perceived biases as motivating factors for their actions.

In a DDoS attack, an overwhelming amount of traffic is directed towards a server, thereby hindering user access. OpenAI confirmed the nature of the attack on its status page, noting an “abnormal traffic pattern reflective of a DDoS attack.”

The service disruption commenced on the morning of November 7th and persisted for over 24 hours, with OpenAI continually working to mitigate the issue. Normal service operations were restored by the evening of November 8th.

This cybersecurity breach coincided with significant developments at OpenAI, including the inaugural DevDay event where new offerings such as GPT-4 Turbo, custom ChatGPT, and API updates were announced.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s fearless leader, took to X (Twitter), candidly speaking about the company’s struggles to keep up with the explosive interest in their latest innovations. Amidst this backdrop of high demand and heightened expectations, the cyberattack added a twist to the tale, underscoring the vulnerabilities even giants in the tech world face.