The British Library was the subject of a large-scale computer attack, several British media announced, while the institution reported “a major technological failure” and a “cyber incident.”

For several days, “our website, infrastructure and online services, and certain services on the sitee” are discontinued and no restoration is planned at this time; its public website remains inaccessible. This November 1, the British Library insisted on the possibility of going to the reading rooms and obtaining communication of certain documents, thanks to the printed catalogues.

The national library opened an investigation with the support of the National Cyber ​​Security Centera public agency inaugurated in 2016 and entirely dedicated to cybersecurity missions and issues.

According to the British site Register, specializing in technology-related issues, a security flaw in the software solution used for virtual machines on the British Library's computer network. But so far, the library has not confirmed any information about an attack.

Target Libraries

The hypothesis of a computer attack, or even ransomware involvement, is however especially credible. Given the duration of the blackout, several British media outlets point out, a third seem to be aware.

What's more, since public institutions house a large amount of information, including personal data, public libraries are prime targets for web bandits. Due to their size, national libraries are even more popular: in 2021, institutions in Brazil and the Czech Republic suffered hacks.

At the end of 2022, the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco was added to the list of victims of this new crime.

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Coincidentally, the United Kingdom is one of the signatories of an international initiative to counter ransomware, adopted in Washington on October 31 and November 1. On this occasion, around forty countries, including France, Germany, Norway and Poland, committed to “not pay ransoms» demanded by the attackers.

With ransomware, large sums of money are demanded in exchange for data recovery and computer network restoration. “As long as funds flow to the criminals behind the ransomware, this problem will continue», commented Anne Neuberger, Joe Biden's deputy national security advisor for cybersecurity and emerging technologies, on the sidelines of this meeting, Reuters reports.

Photography: illustration, Neil Turner, CC BY-SA 2.0