Key takeaways from MyAnimeList news:
- MyAnimeList experienced emergency maintenance due to a hack that caused damage to user scores and renamed many anime titles to “Let’s All Love Lain.”
- The website is expected to be back up in approximately 22 hours, and while some users may experience minor changes or loss of data, it is not expected to be severe.
- Readers are encouraged not to harass the MyAnimeList staff and to understand that hackers will always find a way, even with high levels of security.
I think it’s fair to say that MyAnimeList is probably the most famous non-streaming anime website. We all have dabbled with a bit of MAL sometime in our life.
And for people like me, it is absolutely essential. Because when you’re watching 15+ anime at once, you need something to help keep track of all the episode updates. Not to mention, it is a very quick way of getting some data on any given anime.
But, MyAnimeList has been down for almost 48 hours now and we still don’t know when it will be back. What exactly caused this emergency maintenance, you ask? Well, that is what we are here to talk about today. So let’s get into it.
What Happened to MyAnimeList?
We have published an article on our Help page with the details we know now.
Please refer to the article for more information regarding today's attack and our response.https://t.co/Hk5tRwpjO6
Our team is working diligently to bring the website back online as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/DTRvL5J4rr
— MyAnimeList (@myanimelist) May 10, 2023
Pretty sure MAL had a scheduled maintenance one of these days. But, someone hacked the website, messed up quite a few user scores, and renamed a lot of animes to ‘Let’s All Love Lain’. As funny as that sounds, it’s probably a nightmare for MAL technical staff right now. Because not only they will have to push the hacker out, but they will also have to undo all the damage.
Fortunately, MAL Twitter announced a few minutes ago that the website will be back up in approximately 22 hours. That is a piece of good news for sure. You know, I rely a lot on MAL for my work so it was kind of a headache managing without it.
We expect to resume service in ~22 hours from this message.
Thank you for your patience and support during this emergency maintenance.
More info: https://t.co/bqJlQPE3ct pic.twitter.com/a7H0EHWJ62
— MyAnimeList (@myanimelist) May 12, 2023
That about does it for the news part. So let’s get on with
My Thoughts
I’d like to request something from all readers. Please do not harass the staff of MAL online if something from your profile is reverted. I have already seen a lot of Tweets saying ‘Should’ve had better security’ and stuff. But, even companies like Rockstar Games get hacked. Hackers will always find a way. And unlike anime/movies, in real life, it’s already too late if you’re hacked. You can only do damage control after that.
A lot of people are worried about losing their profiles, as someone with 500+ anime on my list, I am worried about that too. Given the mentioned effects of the hacks, I don’t think anyone will lose their profile outright. But, you may lose a few changes here and there that you made between 9 and 10th May. It should not be anything more severe than that. But that’s just my judgment based on the info provided.
Conclusion
Thar is all for now. I express my respect towards MyAnimeList staff, it must have been hard for them these past two days. I hope they fix everything properly and work on plugging the holes. Here’s to hoping that the hacker is tracked down and dealt with accordingly. With that said though, I will take my leave here.
Since MAL is down, feel free to use our site for the latest anime news! Did you know that My Unique Skill Makes Me OP revealed a bunch of new info? Check it out here!!
