Those of you who followed my 365 days of blogs last year will possibly remember that I uploaded a couple of posts about the ransomware attack on the British Library back in August and November.
The Library refused to pay the £600,000 ransom to the Rhysida gang who subsequently released thousands of files stolen in the attack.
Information has now been revealed that the Library will have to shell out an eye-watering figure approaching £6, or £7 million to repair and upgrade the institutions IT systems following the attack.
A spokesperson for the British Library said it was in “close and regular contact” with its government sponsor, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), but no formal bid had been made for government funds and it “maintains its own financial reserve to help address unexpected issues”.
The British Library holds approximately £16.5 million in reserve, so this recovery bill will see almost 40% of that cushion used up.
Far reaching effects
The attack in August severely crippled the Library’s ability to serve its customers with its online services still unavailable, and manual processes in place in its two physical sites in London and North Yorkshire.
Many remote customers such as academics from most of the UK’s Universities, Researchers all across the globe, journalists, and many others have been completely unable to access any of the Libraries vast resources.
Some of the library’s services are scheduled to return in the middle of this month, including a reference-only version of its online catalogue, however, it is unclear how long it will take before the institution is fully operational, with some saying it could be at least another year before all services are brought back.
