The British Library Gets Back Online

Uploaded on 2024-01-23 in NEWS-Cybersecurity News, FREE TO VIEW, TECHNOLOGY--Hackers

The UK's biggest library faced a massive cyber attack that took the entire collection offline, but the British Library is now back online with its main catalogue which contains 36m records of printed and rare books, maps, journals and music scores.

The restart took 11 weeks since the cripping cyber attack when a ransomware group took down its website and online catalog. But, access is currently reduced to “read-only” formats, and the full recovery of services could take until the end of 2024

“Full recovery of all our services will be a gradual process,” Sir Roly Keating, the library’s chief executive, said in a recent blog. “When the catalogue returns it won’t be in quite the form that long-standing users will be familiar with. Most notably it will be 'read-only', so although you will be able to search for items as before, the process for checking availability and ordering them for to use in the Reading Rooms will be different,” says Keating.

Rhysida, a known ransomware group, claimed responsibility for the attack at the end of October. In November, the library confirmed some employee data had been stolen in the attack and was being sold on the Dark Web. The library’s main catalogue has not been accessible since the ransom attack.

The ransom demanded to restore services was 20 Bitcoins, equivalent to aroung £600,000 / $750,000, which the Libaray refused to pay, whereas the cost of rebuiding systems to restore services is estimated at ten times that amount.

The restoration online of the main catalogue will allow users to search for items, but the process of checking availability and ordering items for use in the library’s reading rooms will be different. At the time of tye attack the Libraray was embarking on a major investment in its core technology infrastructure. “That work will now be accelerated, to ensure that what emerges from this unwanted attack is a strengthened British Library that is as ready as it can possibly be to confront whatever future threats emerge from the constantly evolving world of cyber crime”, says Keating

Readers will also regain access to most of the library’s key special collections, including archives and manuscripts, but “for the time being” will need to come in person to consult offline versions of specialist catalogues, although the processes may be slower and more manual than before, f the library’s service to researchers restores a core element of its public service.

This work will now be accelerated to ensure that the British Library’s IT infrastructure is musch stronger and able to withstand cyber threats.

British Library: Guardian: NYT: Euronews: Computer Weekly: Infofsecurity Magazine:

Image: Pixabay

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