As per the developer’s status page, ChatGPT and its API have been experiencing "periodic outages" since November 8 at approximately noon PST.
According to the most recent update published on November 8 at 19.49 PST, OpenAI said, “We are dealing with periodic outages due to an abnormal traffic pattern reflective of a DDoS attack. We are continuing work to mitigate this.”
While the application seemed to have been operating normally, a user of the API reported seeing a "429 - Too Many Requests" error, which is consistent with OpenAI's diagnosis of DDoS as the cause of the issue.
Hacktivist group Anonymous Sudan took to Telegram, claiming responsibility of the attacks.
The group claimed to have targeted OpenAI specifically because of its support for Israel, in addition to its stated goal of going against "any American company." The nation has recently been under heavy fire for bombing civilians in Palestine.
The partnership between OpenAI and the Israeli occupation state, as well as the CEO's declaration that he is willing to increase investment in Israel and his multiple meetings with Israeli authorities, including Netanyahu, were mentioned in the statement.
Additionally, it asserted that “AI is now being used in the development of weapons and by intelligence agencies like Mossad” and that “Israel is using ChatGPT to oppress the Palestinians.”
"ChatGPT has a general biasness towards Israel and against Palestine," continued Anonymous Sudan.
In what it described as retaliation for a Quran-burning incident near Turkey's embassy in Stockholm, the group claimed responsibility for DDoS assaults against Swedish companies at the beginning of the year.
Jake Moore, cybersecurity advisor to ESET Global, DDoS mitigation providers must continually enhance their services.
“Each year threat actors become better equipped and use more IP addresses such as home IoT devices to flood systems, making them more difficult to protect,” says Jake.
“Unfortunately, OpenAI remains one of the most talked about technology companies, making it a typical target for hackers. All that can be done to future-proof its network is to continue to expect the unexpected.”
Apparently, GhostSec exposed 20GB of data that involved source code relating to face recognition and motion detection systems of the Iranian software company – Fanap – which is appointed as a comprehensive surveillance system by the Iranian government, monitoring its citizens.
Following the confirmation, GhostSec revealed the intentions of making the data public and has also made a telegram channel ‘Iran Exposed’ to share further information about the breach. It says it is planning to share pieces of the Behnama code, along with various components including configuration files and API data, and that after all the data has been uploaded, detailed explanations will be given.
"This is not about technology and software, it's about the privacy of the people, civil liberties and a balance of power[…]Also publishing the source code for the public presenting this Fanap's lovely AI face recognition and various other privacy invading features and tools. We're simply making the fight a bit more equal," says GhostSec.
The group claims to have found equipment for facial recognition-based video surveillance, utilized in the Pasargad Bank Car GPS and tracking system, as well as a car numberplate identification system—which may have an impact on hijab alerts—and a facial recognition system used for producing ID cards.
Additionally, it claims that the Single Sign-On (SSO) platform, which the regime uses for online user authentication, is connected to the Fanap system. According to cybersecurity firm Cyberint, "This integration compiles intricate aspects of citizens’ lives, not only to determine access privileges for services but also to construct a virtual profile for facial recognition.”
"The group maintains that this evaluation is rooted in the software code, substantiating indisputable evidence of the software’s capabilities and deployment," adds Cyberint.
GhostSec initially claimed responsibility for taking down the fanap-infra.com website but later disclosed that a different website connected to the Fanap software company was only accessible within Iran. In addition, the company's primary GitHub repository was made private, probably in response to the GhostSec attack. "That mean[s], they are scared. That mean[s] it's time to hit harder," GhostSec said.
"While the UK continues to demonise and punish the poor, the sick and the unemployed for the corruption of the financial and political systems, we would like to remind all of the British tax-avoiding Monaco dwellers, the super-rich and politicians that:
We are watching you.
You will be held accountable for your greed.
Expect Us." The defacement page reads.