Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
GiveSendGo, the Christian crowdfunding site to which many have turned as a means of supporting Canada’s striking truck drivers, suffered a cybersecurity attack on Sunday night as a hacker released the names of donors who’d contributed to the Freedom Convoy.
As reported by the National Post, the hacker posted a lengthy manifesto on GiveSendGo. The organization temporarily shuttered its site upon learning of the attack. The site has since been restored.
“We are in a battle,” GiveSendGo said in a statement Tuesday morning. “We didn’t expect it to be easy. This has not caused us to be afraid. Instead, it’s made it even more evident that we can not back down. Thank you for your continued support, prayers and the countless emails letting us know you are standing with us.”
— GiveSendGo (@GiveSendGo) February 15, 2022
GiveSendGo has been under fire since it became the primary vessel through which donors could share money with truckers and farmers who have been protesting vaccine mandates in Canada.
At the urging of Canadian and U.S. officials, crowdfunding site GoFundMe shut down a Freedom Convoy fundraiser on its site. People then flocked to GiveSendGo, which was processing more than $8.4 million in donations from almost 93,000 donors at the time of its hacking.
At the urging of Ottawa premier Doug Ford, a Canadian court attempted to freeze truckers’ access to funds on GiveSendGo, a move that was met by a now famous “Know this!” message from the Christian organization.
The hacker seems to have been inspired to act after GiveSendGo doubled down on its support of the Freedom Convoy.
“Attention GiveSendGo grifters and hatriots,” the hacker’s manifesto read. “The Canadian government has informed you that the money you a–holes raise to fund an insurrection is frozen.”
GiveSendGo has promised to seek legal action and, in its statement, indicated that it “has a dedicated team aggressively focused on identifying these malicious actors and pursuing actions against their cybercrime.”
While the hacker uncovered names, addresses, and donation totals, GiveSendGo said no credit card information was leaked nor money stolen.
The leak revealed that more than half of the people who donated on GiveSendGo were from the United States, with about 29% coming from Canada.
Contrary to popular claims on the left, most donors were everyday people, not right-wing power brokers. Just one prominent person, billionaire Thomas Seibel was listed. His contribution, while substantive at $90,000, represents just a fraction of the total money raised.