The Internet Archive, known for its Wayback Machine, experienced a cyberattack that forced the nonprofit to suspend services temporarily. Despite the breach impacting millions of users’ data, the organization reports no loss or damage to its stored archives. The founder, Brewster Kahle, assured users that the data remains safe, although personal information from user accounts was compromised. In response, the Internet Archive is enhancing security to prevent future incidents and aims to resume full functionality soon.
What’s Happening & Why This Matters
The Internet Archive took the Wayback Machine offline after hackers accessed account details of approximately 31 million users. This breach not only exposed usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords but also allowed the attackers to briefly hijack a JavaScript library. Through this access, they displayed a warning pop-up on the Wayback Machine’s domain, informing visitors of the compromise. While this breach sparked fears about the security of the over 840 billion archived web pages, Kahle confirmed that the content of the archive itself remains secure and unaltered.
Kahle shared updates on the situation, stating that while services are offline, the organization is upgrading internal systems to strengthen overall security. The downtime also provides an opportunity to enhance user experience. Jason Scott, an archivist for the Internet Archive, expressed admiration for the team’s swift and thorough response to the attack, praising their dedication to restoring and safeguarding the service.
The hacker, identifying as part of the group SN_Blackmeta, claimed responsibility and cited political motivations for the attack. They positioned the breach as a protest against U.S. government actions, despite criticism from users who pointed out the Internet Archive’s status as a nonprofit with no government ties. SN_Blackmeta has reportedly carried out additional attacks on other organizations, intensifying concerns about the group’s capabilities and intentions.
TF Summary: What’s Next
As the Internet Archive prepares to restore access, it is implementing security measures to protect user data and archived content against future breaches. The organization’s focus on improving both protection and performance reflects its commitment to free, secure online access to archived content. Users await the full return of the Wayback Machine, with reassurances that the archive’s core data remains unaffected. Another perimeter breach validates the need for robust security in any organization (including nonprofit digital libraries), as cyber threats continue to target various sectors.
Updated 14 October: The Wayback Machine is back online. However, users can only view pages. There is no adding new pages at this time. More updates to follow.
— Text-to-Speech (TTS) provided by gspeech