Internet Archive is continuing to face DDoS attacks after several days

Internet Archive, the San Fransisco-based non-profit known for its digital archive Wayback Machine, has been facing DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks for the last few days. The non-profit announced that an unknown attacker(s) has been launching tens of thousands of fake information requests per second since the attacks began on Sunday.

Internet Archive explained in a blog post:

The Internet Archive, the nonprofit research library that’s home to millions of historical documents, preserved websites, and media content, is currently in its third day of warding off an intermittent DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) cyber-attack.

According to library staff, the collections are safe, though service remains inconsistent. Access to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine – which preserves the history of more than 866 billion web pages – has also been impacted.

This came after the Internet Archive shared a series of updates about the DDoS attacks on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). It notes that cyberattacks have become more frequent against libraries and other knowledge institutions, such as the British Library, Berlin Natural History Museum, and Ontario’s London Public Library, among the recent victims.

Internet Archive"s founder Brewster Kahle assured the collections are safe and said the organization is hardening its defenses to offer more reliable access to the library. "What is new is this attack has been sustained, impactful, targeted, adaptive, and importantly, mean,” he added.

The cyberattacks share the timeline with the legal battle Internet Archive is facing from US book publishers, claiming copyright infringement and seeking combined damages of hundreds of millions of dollars from all libraries. Last year, the non-profit lost a lower court ruling against the book publishers in a case about its Controlled Digital Lending program.