Archive of Our Own Website Suffering Massive DDoS Attacks

Archive of Our Own disclosed that the perpetrators behind these DDoS attacks are “a collective of religiously and politically motivated hackers.”

The popular fanfiction platform Archive of Our Own (AO3) is currently grappling with a wave of distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS attacks). Since early Monday morning, the AO3 website has been experiencing intermittent periods of going offline and coming back online, leaving users frustrated.

AO3, known for its vast collection of fan-created content across various fandoms and genres, serves as a non-profit online archive. However, this cyber attack has disrupted its services and prompted AO3 to address the situation on its official Twitter account.

The first tweet acknowledging the issue was posted at 1:24 PM · Jul 10, 2023 (GMT), where AO3 stated, “The Archive is experiencing some issues.” Later, at 6:38 PM · Jul 10, 2023, AO3 confirmed that the disruption was a result of a DDoS attack, with the tweet reading, “It looks like the Archive is under a DDoS attack causing the servers to fall over.”

AO3 went on to disclose that the perpetrators behind these DDoS attacks are “a collective of religiously and politically motivated hackers.” While their identity remains unknown, Hackread.com has reached out to AO3 for an official statement, hoping to shed light on the motives and identities of the attackers.

A group presenting themselves as a collective of religiously and politically motivated hackers has claimed responsibility for the attack. Experts do not believe they are honest about their motivation, so we urge caution in believing any reasoning they provide for targeting AO3.

— AO3 Status (@AO3_Status) July 10, 2023

Despite the network disruptions caused by DDoS attacks, AO3 has assured its users that their personal data remains uncompromised. The platform emphasized that users do not need to change their passwords in response to this incident.

As the situation unfolds, the AO3 community anxiously awaits further updates and hopes for a swift resolution to the ongoing DDoS attacks, ensuring uninterrupted access to their beloved fanfiction archive.

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I am a UK-based cybersecurity journalist with a passion for covering the latest happenings in cyber security and tech world. I am also into gaming, reading and investigative journalism