Since October, the British Library has been battling a massive IT outage caused by a cyber attack. As a result, this world-famous library is only operating at half capacity. The website is still down and the collection is only accessible on a limited basis. It may take weeks before the (online) service is ready to use.
It has not been revealed who was actually behind the cyber attack. The British Library said that ‘this was a ransomware attack by a group known for carrying out such criminal activity.’ Said the library targeted protective measures taken to protect the system. The agency also carried out a forensic investigation with the support of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, the Metropolitan Police and cyber security experts.
VMware ESXi
According to British IT news service The Register, the incident may be attributable for issues with the VMware ESXi virtual machine (VM) infrastructure library. Given its widespread use in enterprise cloud environments, ransomware gangs often target their encryption at these VM environments.
Library facilities in London and branches in Yorkshire will remain open, such as reading rooms for private study and exhibition spaces. Borrowing of collectible items is limited.
150 million items
As the national library of the United Kingdom – one of the largest libraries in the world – the British Library’s collections contain more than 150 million items in more than four hundred languages; from comics, books, magazines, manuscripts and newspapers to maps and musical scores, patents and stamps, prints and drawings, and even sound recordings.
“Incurable alcohol fan. Proud web practitioner. Wannabe gamer. Music buff. Explorer.”
