The Internet Archive, a well-known digital library recognized for its Wayback Machine, experienced a significant data breach this week, exposing approximately 31 million user accounts. The breach was confirmed by founder Brewster Kahle, who reported on the social media platform X that a cyberattack on Tuesday rendered the website inaccessible.
In a Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, update, Kahle disclosed that usernames, emails, and encrypted passwords had been compromised during the attack. "Services are currently stopped to upgrade internal systems," he wrote.
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"We are working to restore services as quickly and safely as possible. Sorry for this disruption."
The attack was characterized as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assault, which inundates a website with excessive traffic, causing it to crash or become unreachable, according to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency.
Users began to notice issues when a peculiar message appeared on the Internet Archive's website earlier this week, stating, “Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach? It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!” HIBP, or “Have I Been Pwned,” is a platform that allows individuals to check whether their personal information has been compromised in a data breach.
The Internet Archive has not provided a timeline for when services will be restored, but the organization is focused on enhancing its internal systems to prevent future incidents.
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