HOW TO LOSE A LIBRARY

[German Translator]

https://www.publicbooks.org/how-to-lose-a-library/

HOW TO LOSE A LIBRARY

On Halloween, 2023, the British Library suffered a massive cyberattack, which rendered its web presence nonexistent, its collections access disabled, and even its wifi fried. Moreover, the cyberattack also swept the personal data of the British Library’s humans—its users, but, far more extensively, its staff—into the hands of an outside party. During the final week of November, images of the stolen data were presented for auction on the dark web, for sale to whoever’s willing to pay 20 bitcoin, or about Ł600,000. By making the library’s digital infrastructure into a commodity (in an open, albeit dark, market), a “ransomware gang” calling itself Rhysida hopes to pressure the British Library to pay up first.

[LilyBLily]

That's terrible. I've visited the library and it's a gem.

Boo on cyber criminals.

[Vijaya]

How horrible. I hope the library doesn't negotiate with those hackers. Rebuild the card catalog one book at a time. When the digital world collapses, as it will, we will still have the real things. I'm mindful of all my kindle books--many of them classics. The ones I love, I try and get physical copies.