The Internet Archive is back online after a cyberattack

The Internet Archive is back online after new of a cyberattack took out its digital library and popular Wayback Machine on October 9.

The Wayback Machine, a free online tool that lets users view old versions of websites, is back in a provisional, read-only manner, founder Brewster Kahle said in a post on X. “Safe to resume but might need further maintenance, in which case it will be suspended again. Please be gentle.”

Because the Internet Archive is back in read-only format, users can’t upload web pages to be added to the site’s billions of captured links. Rather, users can access content that’s been archived over time.

“Distributed denial-of-service” attacks (DDoS), which occur when bad actors try to overwhelm networks with fake traffic or information requests, have brought repeated havoc to the company in recent months. In May, hackers launched a days-long attack against the Internet Archive. Hackers also gained access in September to a user authentication database with 31 million unique records. It’s unclear if the attacks and the breach are related. The organization, according to Kahle, has been using time off to strengthen its security and scrub its systems.

Kahle added on X that volume is back to normal on the site, with the Wayback Machine processing 1,500 requests per second.

“[Internet Archive] is being cautious and prioritizing keeping data safe at the expense of service availability,” Kahle said.

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