Cyber Incident Victim: Michael Phelps personal website
Date:
Aug 2016
Location:
Brazil
Summary
The official website of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps experienced prolonged outages due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack claimed by the hacking group New World Hackers. The group stated the attack exploited security vulnerabilities to demonstrate inadequate protections on celebrity websites, using their tool BangStresser to overwhelm the site with traffic. They emphasized no data theft occurred but warned of imminent attacks on other high-profile targets, including Adele, Kanye West, and Kim Kardashian, citing their assessments of inadequate defenses across multiple celebrity domains. The incident highlighted the group's pattern of disruptive attacks aimed at publicity and forcing security improvements.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On August 7, 2016, shortly after Michael Phelps secured his record 19th Olympic gold medal during the Rio de Janeiro 4x100-meter relay, his official website experienced prolonged outages due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The hacking collective New World Hackers claimed responsibility for the disruption, confirming to Newsweek that they intentionally overloaded the site with traffic using their proprietary tool BangStresser. At the time of Newsweek's reporting, Phelps's website remained inaccessible to users. The group stated the attack aimed to demonstrate security deficiencies in celebrity websites rather than steal data or expose private information. This incident marked Phelps as one of multiple high-profile targets in New World Hackers' broader campaign testing digital vulnerabilities among public figures.
New World Hackers disclosed they had evaluated over 100 celebrity websites, identifying approximately 70 with exploitable weaknesses. The group cited singer Adele's website as having particularly poor security prior to their brief attack the preceding week. They announced imminent plans to target Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, acknowledging these sites had stronger protections but contained one undisclosed "fatal error." Through these actions, the hackers sought to promote awareness of cybersecurity gaps while simultaneously advertising BangStresser's capabilities. Their public statements emphasized that no celebrity with vulnerable infrastructure was exempt from potential attacks, framing the incidents as both security demonstrations and warnings for high-profile individuals to enhance their digital defenses. The sustained disruption of Phelps's website during his Olympic achievements underscored the operational impact of such attacks on public-facing platforms.