Fanfiction Website AO3 Has Gone Down Due To DDoS Attacks

Update 12/07/23 – AO3 has recovered from the shutdown and is now running as normal.

Original Article: The fanfic-sharing website Archive of Our Own (AO3) has gone down for the past few hours.

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Five hours following the shutdown, the official AO3 Twitter Account posted an update saying that the cause of the shutdown was due to a DDoS Attack.

A DDOS attack is when an attacker attempts to knock a site offline by overwhelming it with requests: https://t.co/d7IsE3eEaA
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Data is not compromised in a DDOS attack, so there is no need to change your password at this time.

— AO3 Status (@AO3_Status) July 10, 2023

AO3 has confirmed that no user data was compromised during the attack and that the website has simply been taken down.

The hacker that has claimed credit for the attack is a group called Anonymous Sudan which says that their actions to take down AO3 were due to the organization being “against all forms of degeneracy, and the site is full of disgusting smuts and other LGBTQ+ and NSFW things.”

The AO3 Twitter refers to them as “a group presenting themselves as a collective of religiously and politically motivated hackers”. However they also say that experts do not believe they are being honest about their motivation, so they urge users to be cautious in believing any supposed motivation they provide for the attack.

“We do not condone anti-Muslim sentiments under any circumstances. Additionally, to reiterate: cybersecurity experts believe the group claiming responsibility is lying about their affiliation and reasons for attacking websites. View the group’s statements with skepticism”.

As of this article, the latest update from AO3 is that are working with Cybersecurity Experts to bring the website back online and ask users to be patient with them. In the meantime, users may see error messages or encounter display issues with the site layout if they try to log on.

The response from fans has been most understanding and positive, wishing the AO3 admins the best of luck with fixing the site. It is important to note that AO3 is primarily run by volunteers who are going out of their way to work on the page.