Crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo hacked hours ahead of Trudeau's Emergencies Act declaration
The database, which was first made available on Google Docs, included real names, personal emails, locations, and assorted details of donors who lent their support to the ongoing protests now deemed illegal by the Trudeau government.
GiveSendGo, the crowdfunding website that raised more than $8.7 million in cash for the “Freedom Convoy” protesters in Ottawa was hacked on Sunday night, leaving the details of over 92,000 donors now vulnerable to public scrutiny.
The hackers who breached the database have not publicly revealed who they are, but anyone who visited the website on Sunday evening was greeted by a redirect to GiveSendGone.wtf, which played a video of Disney’s “Frozen” and a long message that included the following paragraph:
“Attention GiveSendGo grifters and hatriots. You helped fund the January 6th insurrection in the U.S. You helped fund an insurrection in Ottawa. In fact you are committed to fund anything that keeps the raging fire of misinformation going until it burns the world’s collective democracies down. On behalf of sane people worldwide who wish to continue living in a democracy, I am now telling you that GiveSendGo itself is now frozen.”
Here is the first half of the video uploaded by hackers who targeted the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo.pic.twitter.com/uisu2xjG2U
— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) February 14, 2022
The hackers noted that the Canadian protests have spurred on similar protests worldwide, and asked: “Has anyone thought about how dangerous this is, especially during these times?”
“The Canadian government has informed you that the money you assh***s raised to fund an insurrection is frozen,” the group wrote, referring to the Ontario Superior Court’s ruling to freeze funds from crowdfunding websites.
The database, which was first made available on Google Docs, included real names (as listed on credit or debit cards), personal emails, locations, and assorted details of donors who lent their support to the ongoing protests now deemed illegal by the Trudeau government, which invoked the Emergencies Act on Monday.
The hacked database, containing the details of 92,845 donors, is no longer available, but Rebel News was able to review a copy of the data before it was pulled by Google.
Although the platform allows donors to make their donations public, many simply chose to hide their identities – which were then revealed by the breach, betraying the platform’s lack of security.
The vast majority of donors provided their names, email addresses, with only a few individuals retaining their anonymity. Rebel News will not be publishing the details or identities of those affected by the GiveSendGo breach.
The company has not released any public statements since the breach and a review of its website shows a placeholder that reads:
Thanks for visiting GiveSendGo.com
We are currently offline for maintenance and server upgrades. We are continuing to improve our platform to ensure it will be the best fundraising platform on the internet. Thank you for your patience and support. Please check back later.
According to “extremism” data analyst Amarnath Amarasingam, analysis of the stolen data shows that the bulk of donations came from Canadian donors, while the majority of donors come from the U.S., making up more than 56%. Thousands of donations also poured in from Europe and Australia. Canadians managed to outraise Americans by almost $1 million, bringing in $4.3 million to the truckers compared to the Americans’ $3.6 million.
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