Hacker News gets fronted by Cloudflare when there was/is unusual bot activity, high load or a DDoS. This happens from time to time, but after the activity goes back to normal, they usually remove the Cloudflare fronting. As chippy said this time, they may have been DDoSed.
[flagged]
Other than the destruction of the reputation of the business, a class-action lawsuit, a prison sentence, and a lifetime of unemployment, I guess not much.