Detecting (and Stopping) Robot Pirates

On the high seas, you can see a pirate approaching for miles. This gives the captain and crew time to prepare themselves against the onslaught, warn other ships, and call the naval authorities for help. On the Internet, pirates act with stealth. Often, you don’t even know that you’ve been boarded until the pirates have left with the booty. This is a story about such an attack that took place last Christmas Eve by Sci-Hub pirates.

When you see the spike in article downloads to this one publisher, the first and most obvious question was whether the platform provider detected such an attack and whether the publisher was notified. Nope and nope.