The Internet Archive, home to the popular Wayback Machine, has partially restored its services following a significant cyberattack that forced it offline last week. The digital library is now operating in a read-only capacity, allowing users to access its vast collection of archived web pages while the organization continues to strengthen its defenses against future threats.
The Attack and Its Aftermath
On October 9th, the Internet Archive fell victim to a multi-pronged cyberattack that included both a data breach and a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The breach resulted in the theft of a user authentication database containing 31 million unique records, including email addresses, screen names, and hashed passwords.
Current Status and Limitations
Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, announced that the site is now back online in a provisional, read-only manner. While users can search through the 916 billion web pages stored in the Wayback Machine, certain features remain unavailable:
- Users cannot capture new web pages into the archive
- Some internal services, such as crawlers for National Libraries, are gradually being restored
- Staff email accounts have been brought back online
Ongoing Security Measures
The Internet Archive team is taking a cautious approach to recovery, suspending services as needed to examine and fortify them against potential future attacks. This measured restoration process aims to ensure the long-term security and stability of the platform.
Wider Impact and Timing
The cyberattack on the Internet Archive comes at a particularly inopportune time, as Google recently began incorporating links to archived websites from the Wayback Machine in its search results. This integration was introduced following Google's decision to remove its own cached page links earlier this year, making the Wayback Machine an even more critical resource for accessing historical web content.
As the Internet Archive works to fully recover from this incident, the tech community is reminded of the vital role this digital library plays in preserving internet history and the ongoing challenges of maintaining cybersecurity for such large-scale, public-facing services.