this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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archive.today is directing a DDOS attack against my blog (and more) (gyrovague.com)
submitted 1 day ago by A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip to c/privacy@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Disclaimer: This is not technically a privacy matter for the reader, but I believe it is adjacent and important enough for this community.

Around January 11, 2026, archive.today (aka archive.is, archive.md, etc) started using its users as proxies to conduct a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack against Gyrovague, my personal blog. All users encountering archive.today's CAPTCHA page currently load and execute the following Javascript: setInterval(function() { fetch("https://gyrovague.com/?s" + Math.random().toString(36).substring(2, 3 + Math.random() * 8), { referrerPolicy: "no-referrer",…

Far too many netizens still try to ignore this or even come up with reasons why gyrovague is the bad guy here.

Alternative archive pages:

archive.org
ghostarchive.org
archivebox.io (self-hosted)

But how else to bypass a paywall?

I've read relevant articles and clicked old links - they all seem to be history. The only ones that still work just look for the article in various archives - the subject of this post always amongst them. The same applies to this article, but there's still some good tips.

Here is the original article from 2023: https://gyrovague.com/2023/08/05/archive-today-on-the-trail-of-the-mysterious-guerrilla-archivist-of-the-internet/ and what Patakallio has to say about it today:

The post mentions three names/aliases linked to the site, but all of them had been dug up by previous sleuths and the blog post also concludes that they are all most likely aliases, so as far as “doxxing” goes, this wasn’t terribly effective.

Here is a relevant ArsTechnica article: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-bans-archive-today-after-site-executed-ddos-and-altered-web-captures/

Wikipedia editors discovered that the archive site altered snapshots of webpages to insert the name of the blogger who was targeted by the DDoS.

archive.today (.ph, .is, .md, .fo, .li, .vn) also loads a pixel and javascript from mail.ru. The script mentions lamoda.ru, kommersant.ru, dzen.ru, ad.mail.ru, vk.com, vkontakte.ru, ok.ru, odnoklasseniki.ru. I haven't researched this further, but I think one can assume that your IP address will be spread across all relevant Russian websites. 10 years ago I would have said "so what? The Russians have social media too" but today you can safely assume that all this data is available to the government itself and is actively contributing to the hybrid war.

All in all, archive.today has always been in the "too good to be true" category. Call me suspicious.

And once again because it's important:

The Wikipedia guidance points out that the Internet Archive and its website, Archive.org, are “uninvolved with and entirely separate from archive.today.”

all 31 comments
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[–] nullroot@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Would just like to add the ublock was updated to block this ddos attack so, moral qualms aside, you can use the archive without participating in the attack.

I point this out but archive.is has content literally available nowhere else.

[–] whaleross@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

I, for one, would not trust archive.today if they stoop down to covert ddosing by their users web browsers. Who knows what else they feel entitled to use you for then.

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 day ago (4 children)

This is months old and yes there has been fallout, but posting it as if it was new is misleading.

[–] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

People are still using it so I think there's some benefit in continuing to spread the information. Some are completely unaware of the situation, others don't realize that the .ph/.li/.md ones are run by the same operator as .today.

[–] Virtvirt588@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Exactly, it makes no sense to just stop spreading factual information. The people must know the truth, and by saying that it was already known is honestly naïve. This kind of behaviour must stop, as all it does is disregard the actual threat.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 2 points 1 day ago

also .is, .fo, .vn

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's still happening. Even more so, as the owner of archive.xx now also manipulates archived pages.

there has been fallout

I disagree with any attempt to portray this as some sort of tiff between netizens. No, gyrovague is very clearly being attacked because whoever runs the archive got angry, scared, who knows, for someone doing journalism on them. Over two years later, too.

Their original article from 2023 totally endorses archive.today, and there is no doxxing happening there. According to the article linked in this post:

The post mentions three names/aliases linked to the site, but all of them had been dug up by previous sleuths and the blog post also concludes that they are all most likely aliases, so as far as “doxxing” goes, this wasn’t terribly effective.

And, having read that older article, I totally agree.

Since many many people use this archive service every day, there's also justified and legitimate public interest.

[–] voxel@feddit.uk 5 points 1 day ago

Less then two months according to the blog.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

Question about https://archivebox.io/

Does it get around paywalls ?

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com -4 points 23 hours ago

This is a privacy forum and you work for Google. That is a case for you being the bad guy.

[–] Oisteink@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

What a shitty website - i cant make it past the «we will track all kinds of shit from you»

[–] voxel@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

Very interesting; I will verify the integrity of what you said and may spread the word.

[–] Hamartia@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I do wonder what the motivation of gyrovague to dox the owner of archive.today was?

From Hacker News:

"Gyrovague", the author of the post we're commenting under has for reasons unknown engaged in targeted harassment of the owner of "archive.today". Now the owner of archive.today is attempting a rather lazy DoS attack against gyrovague.com. A rather mild response to gyrovague attempting to bring the archive.today owner physical harm by spreading potentially identifying information about them.

There's really very little to be said about this whole thing besides that Gyrovague should try to be a less awful person in the future.

It is relevant to this discussion to mention that archive.today keeps in the public sphere that which governments and powerful people have scrubbed out of general awareness by applying various forms of pressure. So we should expect them to come under pressure too.

Maybe related, maybe not: Wikipedia's owner came under pressure it seems to muddy the debate around the genocide in Gaza. Archive.today will hold a record of the propaganda warfare in mainstream media and more ephemeral web content like videos/blogs uploaded from within Gaza. So by excluding this particular archive Wikipedia seems to be prioritising media sources that are manipulated by governments and the powerful.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

“Gyrovague”, the author of the post we’re commenting under has for reasons unknown engaged in targeted harassment of the owner of “archive.today”. Now the owner of archive.today is attempting a rather lazy DoS attack against gyrovague.com. A rather mild response to gyrovague attempting to bring the archive.today owner physical harm by spreading potentially identifying information about them.

There’s really very little to be said about this whole thing besides that Gyrovague should try to be a less awful person in the future.

I disagree with any attempt to portray this as some sort of tiff between netizens. No, gyrovague is very clearly being attacked because whoever runs the archive got angry, scared, who knows, for someone doing journalism on them. Over two years later, too.

Their original article from 2023 totally endorses archive.today, and there is no doxxing happening there. According to the article linked in this post:

The post mentions three names/aliases linked to the site, but all of them had been dug up by previous sleuths and the blog post also concludes that they are all most likely aliases, so as far as “doxxing” goes, this wasn’t terribly effective.

And, having read that older article, I totally agree.

Since many many people use this archive service every day, there’s also justified and legitimate public interest.

No, whoever runs archive.today turned negative attention on themselves through their reactions. Keep in mind, they now not only DDOS but also manipulate archived pages to further disparage gyrovague.

[–] Hamartia@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I disagree with your disagreement :p

It is a common manipulative method of praising something right before landing a substantive blow on it as a way lending your argument credibility.

Anonymouse has the most wonderful posts I have ever read, however I believe in this case he is down playing the threat to the owner of Archive.today that is represented by doxing them. Snowden isn't hiding in Russia because he loves the weather. Assange didn't hide in the Columbian Embassy because he liked their exercise bike. There's a reason that the person who released the Panama Papars is only know as John Doe. And why can't Francesca Albanese's bank cards no longer work. Amongst the powerful elites are psychopaths.

Acting as if doxing someone who undermines the elite's grip on PR is some benign act and irrelevant to the owner of archive.today's reaction is a leading distortion of the reality of the situation.

[–] voxel@feddit.uk 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What exactly do you call "doxxing" here?

[–] Hamartia@lemmy.world -2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

What do think doxxing is?

[–] voxel@feddit.uk 2 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

So you avoid my question, together enough reason to block you.

[–] Hamartia@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Block away. The doxing is obvious, you're just trying to seal lion.

[–] phar@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is there some evidence of this doxing?

[–] Hamartia@lemmy.world 0 points 22 hours ago

Gyrovague's blog

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

It is a common manipulative method of praising something right before landing a substantive blow on it as a way lending your argument credibility.

Yeah you clearly didn't read the original article.

There is no "substantive blow", he ends it with announcing that he will buy them a coffee on buymeacoffee.

[–] Hamartia@lemmy.world 0 points 22 hours ago

You responses are most helpful and you are, no doubt, a charming fellow however you don't seem to understand that doxing can be a very serious problem for some people. Maybe I'll buy you a coffee!?