The Internet Archive is back as a read-only service after the cyber attack

The Internet Archive is back online in read-only mode after a cyber attack took down the digital library and the Wayback Machine last week. A data breach and DDoS attack kicked the site offline on October 9, with a user authentication database containing 31 million unique records also stolen in recent weeks.

The Internet Archive is now back online in “temporary, read-only mode,” according to founder Brewster Kahle. “It is safe to start again but it may require more maintenance, in which case it will be suspended again.”

While you can access the Wayback Machine to search the 916 billion web pages that have been archived over time, you cannot currently capture an archived web page. Kahle and the team have been gradually restoring Archive.org’s services in recent days, including restoring the group’s email accounts and their National Library searches. Services were offline so Internet Archive staff could test and harden against future attacks.

A pop-up from the alleged hacker said the archive had been breached in a “security crisis” last week, before Have I Been Pwned confirmed the data was stolen. The theft included email addresses, screen names, quick passwords, and other internal data for 31 million unique email accounts.

The end of the Internet Archive came just weeks after Google began adding links to archived websites to the Wayback Machine. Google removed its links to archived pages earlier this year, so having a Wayback tool linked to Google search results is a useful way to access older versions of websites or archived pages.