Internet Archive and Wayback Machine under DDoS cyber attack

The Internet Archive has been fending off a DDoS attack for three days now, impacting service for users around the world.

A nonprofit research library that houses millions of historical documents, including the entire history of Aruba, the Internet Archive provides free access to collections of digital materials. Over the past three days, it has been hit by intermittent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, a form of cyberattack that has impacted service all week.

Library officials say Internet Archive collections are secure, but the service remains inconsistent, affecting whether users can access the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, which contains more than 866 billion web pages.

Internet Archive responds to DDoS attack

The attacks began on Sunday. The DDoS intruders launched thousands of fake information requests per second. This overloaded the service and caused the ongoing problems. At the time of writing, the source or identity of the attackers are unknown.

“Fortunately, the collections are secure, but we are sorry that the denial-of-service attack has taken us offline at times over the past three days,” said Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive.

“With the support of others and the hard work of our staff, we are strengthening our defenses to ensure more reliable access to our library. What is new is that this attack was sustained, impactful, targeted, adaptive and, importantly, vicious.”

This DDoS attack is not an isolated incident. Cyberattacks on libraries and other information-based institutions are on the rise. Recent victims include the British Library, the Solano County (California) Public Library, the Berlin Natural History Museum and the London Public Library in Ontario (Canada).

This attack came after the Internet Archive was recently sued by the US book publishing and recording industry associations. The organizations claimed copyright infringement and demanded damages totaling several hundred million dollars from all libraries.

“If our customers around the world find this current situation troubling, then they should be very concerned about what the publishing and recording industries are up to,” Kahle added. “I believe they are trying to completely destroy this library and hamper all libraries everywhere. But just as we are fighting back against the DDoS attack, we are grateful for any support to help us fight back these unjust lawsuits against our library and others.”

Featured image: Ideogram