Internet Archive fights against DDoS attack impacting its service

DDoS attacks are a kind of cyber-attack wherein malicious actors hit digital platforms with a huge number of troublesome service requests in a short time span [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The Internet Archive database that stores and offers free access to documents, books, films, media, and even deleted web pages said on Tuesday it had been facing a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack for three days.

DDoS attacks are a kind of cyber-attack wherein malicious actors hit digital platforms with a huge number of troublesome service requests in a short time span, making it difficult or impossible for genuine users to access the service.

Internet Archive said that the intrusion launched “tens of thousands” of requests per second, but claimed that the collections were safe.

However, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine that allows users to see old and even deleted web pages, was not entirely accessible.

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Service has been up and down for the past few days, per the Archive officers’ posts on social media.

Internet Archive said that the source of the DDoS attack was not known.

“Thankfully the collections are safe, but we are sorry that the denial-of-service attack has knocked us offline intermittently during these last three days. With the support from others and the hard work of staff we are hardening our defenses to provide more reliable access to our library. What is new is this attack has been sustained, impactful, targeted, adaptive, and importantly, mean,” said Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, in a blog post.

Internet Archive allows users to view or download both historical and modern media content for free. However, it has been hit with legal action over the kind of content it makes available to users worldwide at no cost.

“In addition to a wave of recent cyber-attacks, the Internet Archive is also being sued by the US book publishing and US recording industries associations, which are claiming copyright infringement and demanding combined damages of hundreds of millions of dollars and diminished services from all libraries,” stated the Internet Archive in its post.