The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is coming back to life, but has not yet regained its stellar function

Days after it came under fire for a hack that led to the theft of millions of users’ data and a denial-of-service attack, The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is up and running again. In a post on X (Twitter), Brewster Kahle, founder of the digital library, said the service that stores copies of the entire network is back online. However, he has not yet regained his star function.

As Kahle explained, the Wayback Machine is currently running “temporarily” and is read-only. What does it mean? A useful Internet Archive tool allows you to browse an extensive catalog of previously archived web pages, but does not yet support users taking new screenshots.

So if you want to save your current site using the Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine, you’ll have to wait a little longer to do so. Unfortunately, no possible time frame for the return of this feature has been offered. It’s likely that those responsible for the platform will try to ensure its security and stability before restoring the feature in question.

Kahle said it is safe to restore the Wayback Machine to working order, but it may still require maintenance. And he warned that if they are needed, the service will be suspended again. “Please be gentle”– noted the founder of the Internet Archive.

The Internet Archive and Wayback Machine are slowly being restored

The theft of Wayback Machine data became known in the middle of last week. However, the hack occurred in September, according to Troy Hunt, creator Have I been deceived? The hacker reportedly extracted a 6.4GB file including usernames, email addresses and passwords. hasheds. Leak in question affected more than 31 million users Internet Archive confirmed this.

At the same time, the Internet Archive faced numerous denial-of-service attacks that were not initially related to information theft. The Blackmeta group claimed responsibility through several posts on X (Twitter), in which they accused the digital library of being a front for illegal activities and surveillance with direct ties to the US government.

Following the cyberattacks, Brewster Kahle stated that the Internet Archive was prioritizing data security over the availability of the Wayback Machine. For this reason, It has been decided to cancel the service until its security can be improved.. Meanwhile, last Friday he stressed that they plan to restore work within a few days, not weeks.

We’ll have to see how the story continues. As we have already mentioned, there is no return date for the ability to save a copy of an existing site. Surely the core functionality of the Wayback Machine will return in the coming days if the Internet Archive can continue to function normally.

Recall that in September, Google began offering the ability to view older versions of a web page from search results using the Wayback Machine. A curious decision considering Mountain View removed the built-in cached website browsing feature in February.