The Internet Archive, a nonprofit research library renowned for its extensive digital collections and its time-machine-like snapshots of previous digital eras, has confirmed that it’s grappling with a DDoS attack.
The organization says an intermittent DDoS attack has disrupted its service since Sunday, May 26.
As a result, users are being warned of an “inconsistent” experience and an impacted experience on the website’s Wayback Machine, which has records of more than 866 billion web pages.
DDoS attack
Despite the onslaught, which involves tens of thousands of fake information requests per second designed to flood the servers, the Internet Archive’s collections remain intact.
Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, emphasized the organization’s resilience: “With the support from others and the hard work of staff we are hardening our defenses to provide more reliable access to our library. What is new is this attack has been sustained, impactful, targeted, adaptive, and importantly, mean.”
Director of Library Services at Internet Archive, Chris Freeland, noted that cyberattacks against libraries and other knowledge institutions have become increasingly common recently, citing similar attacks against the British Library, the Solano County Public Library (California), the Berlin Natural History Museum, and Ontario’s London Public Library.
Adding to the pressure, the Internet Archive is also facing legal troubles over alleged copyright infringement relating to US book publishing and recording industries, with potentially millions in damages on the cards.
More recently, Sony and Universal Music launched similar complaints.
It’s unclear whether the site is still being affected by the DDoS attack, but after a false moment of hope on May 27, the organization confirmed on X that it was still “under a DDoS attack.” No further updates have been shared since then.
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