Fan-fiction readers are breathing a sigh of relief as the popular fan-fiction hosting site Archive of Our Own (commonly known as AO3) is back online after a day of technical difficulties. Initially reported early in the morning on July 10, the site announced technical difficulties on its Twitter account. However, later that afternoon, site admins confirmed that the technical difficulties were caused by a DDoS attack aimed at the site.
DDoS attacks, or Distributed Denial of Service attacks, are when multiple data sources flood one particular host, making that network unavailable for use. In non-technical terms, someone, or some group, was spamming the AO3 website with so many requests for access that it caused the site to crash for over a day. In the past, these types of cyber-attacks are more commonly seen as a form of protest against a particular company, as the attack does nothing more than stop people from being able to access a certain website.
As of 12:15pm EST on July 11, AO3 is back up and running after changing over their servers. But many are still wondering exactly who or what caused the DDoS attack and why to go after such an obscure target. Well, one group is claiming they’re the ones who went after the site for its more mature content.
Fighting against “all forms of degeneracy”
The “hacktivist” group Anonymous Sudan took credit for the DDoS attack through a Telegram post, claiming this was part of their planned attacks against various American websites and companies. Their specific reasoning for attacking the fanfiction site revolves around the mature content published on it. They wanted to take down the site “full of disgusting smuts and other LGBTQ+ and NSFW things.”
On AO3’s Twitter account, the site admins, however, warned readers to use caution when reading the claims made by Anonymous Sudan. Many cybersecurity experts have doubted their intentions since they attacked various Microsoft products in June 2023.
CyberCX, an international cyber security company, shared their assessment in June where they believe Anonymous Sudan are actually members of the Russian state. Their reasoning comes after studying the group’s attacks against several Australian organizations back in January 2023. Many of the group’s tendencies for more expensive attack options as well as aligning with other pro-Russian figures, led the company to assume these intentions.
Could these be the real attackers?
Regardless if Anonymous Sudan were actually the actor in the AO3 DDoS attack, the website has been operational without issue since its relaunch on July 11. Though the group threatened to keep running DDoS attacks even if the site comes back online, no counter-attacks have occurred as of now.
What makes this even more interesting is the hacktivist group put out a BitCoin wallet demanding a $30,000 ransom to stop the DDoS attacks. Many TikTok users shared screenshots of the Telegram post, where the group threatened to keep the attacks running for weeks if their demand wasn’t met. Advertising their note to both AO3 fans and admins, the group gave a time limit of 24 hours for the BitCoin wallet to be filled with the ransom. They also reminded readers to “check our DDoS history” in an attempt to validate their threat.
Regardless, most readers are more than relieved to have their favorite hurt pieces available to them again. Anonymous Sudan may have tried, but they failed to stop the fans from getting to read about their terrible ships.