The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is now back online in a read-only state after being taken offline by DDoS attacks on October 9. Founder Brewster Kahle announced that the service has resumed in a provisional, read-only manner, with no capability to save new pages. Security researcher Troy Hunt revealed that last week’s attacks coincided with the Internet Archive’s plan to disclose a previous breach involving the theft of over 31 million records. Hunt, who operates the Have I Been Pwned? service, believed the timing of the attacks was coincidental and involved multiple parties. The hacking group Blackmeta claimed responsibility for the attacks, stating that the Internet Archive “belongs to the USA.” Founded in 1996, the nonprofit is headquartered in San Francisco. Kahle assures users that it’s safe to resume using the Wayback Machine for nostalgic trips to Geocities post-grunge tribute sites, but cautions that the service may require further maintenance, so potential future downtimes may occur.
