The FBI 'helps' the Internet Archive with archive and passwords

[Aeneas]

Today I got an email from the Internet Archive, which I apparently had signed up to years ago. They had had a databreach and as you will see, then the FBI came to the rescue with a backup. The Internet Archive is according to wikipedia:

The Internet Archive is a San Francisco–based nonprofit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge."[4][5] It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, movies/videos, moving images, and nearly three million public-domain books. As of October 2016, its collection topped 15 petabytes.[6] In addition to its archiving function, the Archive is an activist organization, advocating for a free and open Internet.

The Internet Archive allows the public to upload and download digital material to its data cluster, but the bulk of its data is collected automatically by its web crawlers, which work to preserve as much of the public web as possible. Its web archive, the Wayback Machine, contains over 150 billion web captures.[7][8] The Archive also oversees one of the world's largest book digitization projects.

Here is the email that I received:

Friend of the Internet Archive,

Two things:

We urge you to sign up to our once-in-a-while newsletter here:
https://archive.org/account/announcement-settings.php?...

We want to alert you to a user account database breach in 2012, so you may want to change your password. You can do so through the link above.

The FBI helpfully told us that they found a copy of the Archive's user database, dated prior to 2012, during one of their investigations. This database did not have much information that is not on the website, but it had lightly encrypted passwords of the users at the time. We have since upped the encryption level.

We have not noticed any uptick in compromised account activity at the Archive, so we'd bet against past malicious use.

We are sorry for this inconvenience. To stay informed, please update your communications preferences using the link above.

-brewster

Great to be alerted 5 years later the event! So the Internet Archive is basically thanking the FBI for snooping and collecting all the private information that the Internet Archive had in their possession. It makes you of course feel all sweet and loving towards the FBI that they felt to share with us lowly plebians, what they stole. What should we do without those spooks?

It at least gives anyone who had any doubts the certainty that nothing is safe on the internet and that the intel agencies scour information wherever regardless of privacy laws or legitimacy.

Did anybody else receive this notice?

 

[neonix]

Did anybody else receive this notice?

I've got this e-mail too but I thought it was spam and improperly report it to spamcop.
Now it seems it's real notice.
https://blog.archive.org/2017/05/19/re-user-account-breach/

I forgot that I created account in archive.org many years ago. But they send this e-mail using IP from relevantblue company which was suspicious.

It at least gives anyone who had any doubts the certainty that nothing is safe on the internet and that the intel agencies scour information wherever regardless of privacy laws or legitimacy.

Big brother build the system for its own purpose. It looks like best strategy is to try keep out of sight.