One of the most popular and well-liked websites for getting access to free books, movies, and more is now back online in a limited capacity. The Internet Archive, which was taken down due to a cyber attack earlier in October, was restored on Monday evening. The bad news, at least for now, is that the site is available only in a read-only mode. In other words, no one can upload new content to the site, at least for the moment.
In a blog post offering an update on the site's status, it said that other features like borrowing and reviewing content, and its interlibrary loan service are still not available. It added:
The safety and integrity of the Internet Archive’s data and patrons remain our top priorities. As the security incident is analyzed and contained by our team, we are relaunching services as defenses are strengthened. These efforts are focused on reinforcing firewall systems and further protecting the data stores.
The organizers of the non-profit Internet Archive site took it down, along with other sites under its umbrella, earlier this month after hackers breached its servers. They ended up accessing 31 million accounts, including personal info like user names, email addresses, and encrypted passwords.
Since then the site's team has been working to restore its services. Last week, it brought back the popular Wayback Machine site, which lets users check the past content on websites, both current and shut down. Currently, the Wayback Machine site is also in a read-only mode. Also last week, another site run by Internet Archive, Archive-It, was brought back online, but again in a read-only mode.
At the time of this writing, there's no word when full services, including the uploading of new content, will be enabled on the Internet Archive site or its sister sites.
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