Wayback Machine is back online after a major cyberattack but with this big limitation

Wayback Machine

The Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library which hosts the Wayback Machine, has resumed its services after the major data breach last week. The services, however, have resumed partially and are currently functional in a "provisional, read-only manner," with further maintenance potentially leading to temporary suspensions, according to founder Brewster Kahle’s tweet.

“The @internetarchive’s Wayback Machine resumed in a provisional, read-only manner. Sorry, no Save Page Now yet. Safe to resume but might need further maintenance, in which case it will be suspended again. Please be gentle https://web.archive.org. More as it happens”, reads the tweet.

What’s the limitation?

As per Kahle’s tweet, the Internet Archive has made around 916 billion web pages accessible. It’s in Read-only mode which means, users won’t be able to capture and save new pages.

What caused the data breach

Soon after the Internet Archive was attacked, Kahle confirmed that it is a denial of service (DDoS) attack. Another report revealed that this attack has exposed the personal data of 31 million users. The breach came to light when a message appeared on the Archive's site, alerting visitors to the incident. The hacktivist group SN_BLACKMETA, which has voiced support for the Palestinian cause, claimed responsibility.

To counter the breach, the Archive took its services offline to improve security and mitigate the problem. The incident was later verified by the breach tracking platform Have I Been Pwned.

Restoration efforts are ongoing, with some functions, such as email and data crawlers for national libraries, returning to limited operation.

Currently, the Wayback Machine allows users to search its extensive archive of over 916 billion web pages but does not support new page captures. Many of the Internet Archive’s other services remain suspended as security improvements continue.