OpenAI, the prominent artificial intelligence organization, confirmed a major outage on Wednesday that impacted its ChatGPT and API services, as it grappled with what appeared to be a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
The troubles for OpenAI first surfaced on November 7 when the organization reported experiencing partial outages concerning its LLM-based chatbot and API. However, the situation escalated on November 8, with a major outage being reported.
In a late update on Wednesday, OpenAI disclosed that the source of the outages was “an abnormal traffic pattern reflective of a DDoS attack.”
Surprisingly, the hacker group known as Anonymous Sudan claimed responsibility for the outage on their Telegram channel. Anonymous Sudan cited several reasons for targeting OpenAI, including its American origin, alleged cooperation with Israel, and its stance on the Palestine issue.
Anonymous Sudan presents itself as a hacktivist group driven by religious and political motives. They have previously targeted various organizations with disruptive DDoS attacks, including major tech companies like Microsoft, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Telegram.
In a twist of intrigue, it has come to light that Anonymous Sudan might not have any genuine ties to Sudan. Instead, several cybersecurity experts have suggested potential links to Russian hackers, specifically the infamous KillNet group. There are even suspicions of affiliation with the Russian government.
At the time of writing, ChatGPT appears to be operating normally, with only a limited number of major outages reported over the past 90 days, according to OpenAI’s status page. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the evolving landscape of cyber threats and the growing impact of hacktivist groups on organizations, irrespective of their size and prominence. OpenAI remains committed to ensuring the resilience and security of its services.
