The non-profit organization “Internet Archive”, also known as the Wayback Machine, is experiencing a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack ongoing for several days now. The Wayback Machine team is currently in contact with the perpetrators.
The Internet Archive is a global project aimed at creating an online library comprising archived copies of web pages, books, audio, video, images, and other online content. Its flagship product, the Wayback Machine, provides access to previous versions of web pages, even if they’ve been deleted or modified. Most of the “open” internet is archived in its library using web crawling robots.
The organization’s archive holds 835 billion web pages, 44 million books and texts, 15 million audio records, 10.6 million videos, 4.8 million images, and 1 million software programs.
The attack began over the weekend and has continued for several days. The servers have suffered significant damage due to the high volume of requests, resulting in the majority of organization’s online services being unavailable to users.
Representatives of the Wayback Machine have assured that the archive data itself hasn’t been compromised; however, access is challenging or mostly impossible. The organization is currently negotiating with the hackers, but details about these talks and the motive behind the attack remain undisclosed.
The Internet Archive has faced criticism from major media companies and the entertainment industry in the past for copyright infringement while archiving protected content. However, it’s unlikely that the current attack has been initiated by these entities, although no possibilities can be entirely ruled out.
According to experts, such “distributed” DDoS attacks can cause significant damage to projects focusing on long-term data storage. The Internet Archive’s resilience to such attacks and ability to restore services are crucial for realizing its mission of creating a comprehensive digital library of human knowledge and culture.
