[Eril-l] Cloudflare errors with EZProxy for numerous publisher sites

[Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list]

Dear all

Lurking (Highwire-hosted) publisher employee here. The Cloudflare problem is a side-effect of platforms trying to protect themselves from overwhelming AI bot traffic (see this blog post from BMJ's Ian Mulvany: https://world.hey.com/ian.mulvany/ai-bot-traffic-a-real-problem-right-now-a6a513a3). The problem is proxy servers look like bots to Cloudflare. I think OCLC/EZProxy have been working with Cloudflare to try to whitelist their hosted IP addresses, but this leaves a lot of self-hosted users and non-EZProxy proxy users exposed. HighWire are whitelisting IPs within 24 hours of us telling them, but we know it's still a big problem. Apologies if this is all stuff you already knew. 

Yours

Matt

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Matt Broadhead (he/him/his)  |  Assistant publications manager  |  European Respiratory Society: https://ror.org/00c8n3h65
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From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org> on behalf of Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2025 4:36:07 PM
To: Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>
Subject: Re: [Eril-l] [EXTERNAL] Re: Cloudflare errors with EZProxy for numerous publisher sites


[EXTERNAL]

Hi Vickie-

Here at Mount Holyoke, we've been contacting publishers directly, but I'm now including in my support request that this issue may be Silverchair-related and that multiple publishers and multiple customers are being affected.

In brief, Silverchair provides website technical management and hosting technology for publishing online journals as a service to publishers and academic societies. Right now, it seems like security configuration changes by Silverchair are affecting Silverchair's hosted publisher sites.

Without an e-resources person, it's not a surprise that you don't have the time to contact publishers individually. Because this is a widespread issue, it hopefully also means that it will be resolved for everyone at the same time as well.

You may want to consider just contacting your highest-demand platforms, or even just letting your community know that on-campus access (and VPN if you have that available) can be a workaround for the moment (as direct IP access doesn't seem to be affected), and that this is a broader problem at other schools as well.

Best,
Jen Bolmarcich

*reply chain abbreviated
On Tue, Aug 12, 2025 at 11:40?AM Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>> wrote:
Dom and Jen,  I'm not as familiar with the Silverchair issue.    Is it possible to contact them directly or do we need to go through each publisher?    Are these publishers that can be added to IPregistery?   I'm not as familiar with dealing with individual publishers, we lost our electronic resources position.  :(

Thanks!

Vickie
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Jen Bolmarcich
Pronouns<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.mypronouns.org/what-and-why/__;!!MXfaZl3l!ZmKqYsPLpgBBSZ2f4oyVpso5hK8LVZuEE8ZGpioo0yPejdy-T-iBFN8D6XmktZ6Rvc28weSWDqA2N1IvTEM7fuMu$>: she/her Discovery and Systems Librarian Mount Holyoke College mhc-e-resources-g at mtholyoke.edu<mailto:mhc-e-resources-g at mtholyoke.edu>

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