This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I can’t think of any reason to attack that website, what have they done wrong?
Archived something someone doesn't want to be seen by the world... like any and all since-removed misinformation for one...
tinfoil would suggested the media industry but this seems a bit more "personal"
It’s likely to just be some randos doing it for the lulz and IA was vulnerable for whatever reason. Book publishers have sadly been enjoying plenty of success in court against IA. They don’t need to get their hands dirty.
I have zero proof of this so take it for the musing it is, but the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine can be used to view articles that have been taken offline (sometimes for political reasons). The IA is a very accessible way to prove that once something is on the Internet, it's out there forever. I used it in a recent post to show an Israeli newspaper article that argued Israel had a right to not just Palestine, but Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and other territories. It was taken off the newspaper's website a few days later, but IA had it.
This may explain why no one is taking credit, and there are no demands. Or it could very well be another reason, including people just being assholes.
Yeah, this is a bit like vandalizing a library. They are providing a valuable public service, leave them alone.
Yeah, and what kind of psychos would want to restrict public access to books in libraries?!?! I'm not on the conspiracy train until there's proof and I agree with your post. Just saw a bit of irony there since a lot of North Americans are currently in the process of dismantling libraries.
It's probably for the lulz I guess. There's only a few places left on the internet that are decent and good, archive being one, so why not shit all over it? People are so dumb.
There's currently a fuck ton of hacking going on everywhere maybe just prior to the US elections maybe something unrelated but there's definitely a concerted effort to turn the internet on its head.
In this case it’s looking like people trying to showcase their skill and possibly get bragging rights or at least a reputation for doing these attacks which they can use to earn money from others for these types of services.
We just need to accept that there's terrible people in this world
We see this and think of an amazing and essential public service. A capitalist sees this and tries to find a way to make money with it, and the first step is to ruin the free product.
I have no sympathy for those who attack and deface our libraries, whether they be physical or digital
The corporations that took control of the Internet don't want us to remember.
Just got an email from HaveIBeenPwned.com stating 31 million logins were leaked. Email address, username, and bcrypt hashed passwords were obtained.
Edit: probably should have read the article before posting
Alright who has the donate link so I can help them out.
https://archive.org/donate This would be it if it were up and running. I wonder if there's any other avenues?
I recently went through most of my accounts and randomized the username, with the thought here being to limit the likelihood of one site being compromised leading to accounts at other sites being compromised. I don't have to remember them due to using a password manager, so it's really no skin off my nose.
I'll use this as a reminder to everyone to improve your security. Some ideas:
Sucks that people are targeting IA, I hope there isn't any lasting damage and that this is a simple defacement/DOS.
For e-mails, you can just get firefox relay with your own subdomain and generate infinite e-mail masks for 1$ a month. I usually take "nameofshop@mysubdomain.mozmail.com" for example. It's pretty great because you just make the masks on the fly.
I've been doing this for several years now (not specifically that service, since I have my own domains). It's really nice knowing exactly who sold your email to the spam bots, because it's right in the address. Super easy to block once that happens.
Yup.
If you use the same email everywhere, they can try brute-forcing the password by using the email instead of your username. Give them less to go on. $1/month is absolutely worth it to prevent an important account from getting hacked.
Of all the places to do this to, why The Archive?
with as long as this has been going on it really surprises me that nothing has come out as a motive. it seems kind of pointless to do this sort of thing and not make your intentions known
maybe it's a government or organization upset that they are keeping archives of things they don't like
Apparently, from a different article, the hackers did it because 'america bad'.
Which is fine as a message I guess, but picking this website is dumb.
The hacktivist group SN_BLACKMETA has claimed responsibility and cites US support of Israel as the motivation.
https://bsky.app/profile/archive.org/post/3l67dtwvulp23
“Update: @internetarchive’s data has not been corrupted. Services are currently stopped to upgrade internal systems.
We are working to restore services as quickly and safely as possible.
Sorry for this disruption.”
How can we help?
I used a 64 charcters unique password, so i don't think the bcrypt hash of it would be of any use for them.
Good thing I use archive.org without creating an account.
Spare a thought for the users with accounts who upload content to IA for you to enjoy.
I was wondering why I hadn't been able to access Internet Archive yesterday... Who would take down what is the digital equivalent to the Library of Alexandria? I can only imagine some really childish people who have nothing better to do with their lives. I hope that the website can recover from the attack soon! 🙏
Who would take down what is the digital equivalent to the Library of Alexandria?
I can think of a few possibilities
1: peddlers of misinformation
2: people who love the poorly educated and want the misdeeds of their political allies to be forgotten.
3: copyright trolls.
State actors? Maybe.
It's a bit tinhatty, though I'm betting on something akin to corporate espionage pointed at the Internet Archive.
Could just be a 14 year old kid with a bit of talent too. Wouldn't be the first time.
