After days-old fiasco, Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is now back online
It's only a read-only service though, for now.
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Key notes
- The Internet Archive, hit by a DDoS attack affecting 31 million records, is back in a limited, read-only mode.
- Founder Brewster Kahle assured data is safe, with some services slowly restoring.
- DDoS group Blackmeta claimed responsibility, criticizing the Archive’s ties with the US government despite being an NGO.
It’s been quite a hectic few days over at the Internet Archive’s office. The non-profit, which owns the Wayback Machine digital library, was a victim of a DDoS attack that took down the website and reportedly affected around 31 million records.
The good news now is that the Wayback Machine seems to be back up online. Brewster Kahle, the non-profit’s founder, announced on X that the website’s operation has now “resumed in a provisional, read-only manner.”
“Sorry, no Save Page Now yet. Safe to resume but might need further maintenance, in which case it will be suspended again. Please be gentle,” says Kahle.
The Internet Archive team worked to restore the service over the weekend. Previously, Kahle mentioned in another tweet to reassure that users’ data remains secure with no corruption detected. Sub-services, like email, were also gradually coming back online. Contracted crawls for National Libraries would also continue to ensure collection integrity.
These DDoS attacks peaked twice, once on October 9 and again on October 10 according to DownDetector. Blackmeta, a DDoS group, claimed responsibility & shared cryptic messages on social media. Despite being a non-profit organization, the Internet Archive’s attackers referenced the NGO’s association with the US government, criticizing its stance on international issues.
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