Bill Cosby
Nearly three dozen women who have accused Bill Cosby of rape tell their stories in the July 27-Aug. 9 issue of New York magazine. Reuters

Hours after New York magazine unveiled its most striking cover story in years, its website went dark. New York told staffers in an email that it was hit by a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack, an editor told International Business Times. This type of attack crashes a website by taking control of thousands of IP addresses and overwhelming the host.

NYmag.com came back online later Monday around 2 p.m. EST.

The cover story of the magazine's July 27-Aug. 9 issue -- a piece interviewing 35 women who have publicly accused Bill Cosby of rape -- made a splash on social media Sunday night. But by Monday morning, the page was off-limits -- along with the rest of the site.

Readers could still read the widely praised story here, preserved in an archived form before the site went down.

New York magazine posted an update on its Twitter account acknowledging the blackout.

Digital editor Ben Williams did not immediaitely respond to a request for comment.

RELATED STORIES
Twitter