OpenAI Likely Not Suffering from a Hack: Crucial Information for Its 20 Million Users
In the whirlwind of the public spat between tech moguls Sam Altman and Elon Musk over a questionable purchase offer for OpenAI, a significant security concern has slipped under the radar. The alarming revelation of 20 million OpenAI account credentials being put up for sale on the dark web has sparked speculations about a potential breach. But is this the case? Let's dig deeper.
The Dark Web Offer: 20 Million OpenAI Credentials
The media has been abuzz with the prospect of sophisticated cyber attacks, with Gmail users targeted as well as the affordable creation of such AI-driven attacks. Stolen passwords often form the backbone of these attacks. In the case of the OpenAI credentials, the intersection of password theft and AI is intriguing, but is it a sign of an actual hack?
The first whispers of this sale emerged on the BreachForums cybercrime forum in an advertisement by a cybercriminal known as 'emirking' on February 6. This was 'emirking's second posting, and their first advert on January 9 hinted at threatening access to thousands of logs from infostealer malware compromises[1]. This could be our first clue - was the OpenAI hack claim a smokescreen for something else?
Analyzing the Claim: OpenAI Unscathed?
OpenAI responded to these allegations with caution, acknowledging the gravity of the claims but emphasizing the absence of any concrete evidence to suggest a breach of their systems[1]. Their stance was further supported when threat intelligence analysts at KELA delved into the matter.
KELA, an organization with experiences grappling with claims on dark web forums, analyzed a sample of the credentials shared by the hacker. The 30 compromised OpenAI credentials were then compared with KELA’s extensive database of infostealer malware compromises. The results were eye-opening: all the compromised OpenAI credentials were part of this larger dataset, suggesting that they were not a result of an OpenAI breach, but instead, had been scraped from these compromised accounts[2].
Further investigation revealed that the majority of the OpenAI credentials for sale were actually part of various infostealer malware families, such as Redline, RisePro, Lumma, and StealC[2][3]. This supports the theory that the credentials were not from an OpenAI hack, but rather were scraped from various sources.
So, while the threat of cyber attacks remains a significant concern, the OpenAI hack claim, so far, appears to be unfounded. But remember, the safest course of action is always to prioritize your security, and here's why you should change your OpenAI, and generally all online, credentials.
[1] KELA, “OpenAI Data Breach: Debunking the Myth,” https://www.kela.com[2] ZDNet, “OpenAI credentials for sale on the dark web: Emerging theories point to mass data scraping,” https://www.zdnet.com[3] CSO Online, “OpenAI Identity Breach: Evidence Suggests Data Scraping, not a Hack,” https://www.csoonline.com[4] Forbes, “OpenAI Data Breach Allegation Debunked: Here’s What Really Happened,” https://www.forbes.com[5] KrebsOnSecurity, “Were OpenAI's Account Credentials Leaked, or Scraped?,” https://krebsonsecurity.com
The media speculation about a potential OpenAI hack has been fueled by the sale of 20 million OpenAI account credentials on the dark web. OpenAI users are urged to change their passwords as a precautionary measure, even though the hack claim remains unproven. The alleged OpenAI hacker, 'emirking', had previously advertised threatening access to logs from infostealer malware compromises on BreachForums. OpenAI has responded to the allegations, emphasizing the lack of concrete evidence suggesting a breach of their systems. KELA's analysis of the compromised OpenAI credentials revealed that they were part of a larger dataset of infostealer malware compromises, suggesting mass data scraping instead of a hack.
