Internet Archive returns after cyberattack as a read-only service
After a cyberattack, the Internet Archive, a popular digital library, has resumed operations. The platform is now available in a "provisional, read-only manner," founder Brewster Kahle said. However, he cautioned that more maintenance might be required which could result in another suspension of the service. The Wayback Machine feature is now functional for browsing its massive collection of web pages, but not for archiving new ones.
Gradual restoration of services underway
Along with reactivating email accounts, the Internet Archive team has also been restoring crawlers for National Libraries. The process started after a purported hacker claimed the archive had suffered a "catastrophic security breach." The breach was later confirmed by Have I Been Pwned, a website that lets internet users check if their personal data has been compromised in a data breach.
Breach compromised 31 million unique email accounts
The Internet Archive data breach led to the theft of email addresses, hashed passwords, screen names, and other internal data. In total, 31 million unique email accounts were compromised in the incident. The cyberattack came just days after Google began including links to archived websites in the Wayback Machine, in its search results.
