Over the past few days, the Internet Archive has suffered two severe data breaches that exposed over 31 million records. This includes people’s email addresses, usernames, and passwords. The second attack came early on October 9th and continues to cripple the site.
The site is still offline as of today, October 10th, with the Internet Archive team working to bring it back. A malicious pop-up appears when you attempt to visit the site, which you can see below:
Is Blackmeta Behind It?
Blackmeta, a DDoS organization, claimed responsibility on X (formerly Twitter) for this cyber attack. The organization says its motives stem from problems with the US government and global conflicts, namely its support of Israel.
An X post from Blackmeta on October 9th states: “They are under attack because the archive belongs to the USA, and as we all know, this horrendous and hypocritical government supports the genocide that is being carried out by the terrorist state of ‘Israel’.”
Many are perplexed by this, as the Internet Archive is not affiliated with the US government and is a nonprofit organization. Some are skeptical that Blackmeta is even responsible for the site shutdown. Many argue that taking down a resource like the Internet Archive keeps Palestinians in a powerless position while helping Israeli forces.
Internet Archive Is Prioritizing Security
Brewster Kahle, the “Digital Librarian” and founder of Internet Archive is posting updates on the situation on X. As of early October 10th, he reports the site is still down because the Internet Archive team is “being cautious and prioritizing keeping data safe at the expense of service availability.”
The Controversy Concerning the Internet Archive
While we hope the site will be up and running again soon, these attacks feel completely baseless. Plenty of corporations and publications have issues with the Internet Archive. There are claims that the site violates copyright policies, pirates content, dodges paywalls and shows controversial content. For example, some warn about videos that teach someone how to make an explosive. However, its sole purpose is to preserve web data and content for the people, not judge or censor information.
The Digital Version of Burning Books
This site’s mission is to be a digital library and has little to do with the US government or its global conflicts. Whether Blackmeta is responsible for these back-to-back shutdowns or not, it’s difficult for people, including us, to understand why this site is being repeatedly targeted.
