[BreachExchange] Boston Public Library Suffers Outages Following A Cyber Attack

[Sophia Kingsbury]

https://latesthackingnews.com/2021/08/30/boston-public-library-suffers-outages-following-a-cyber-attack/

One of the oldest and the largest libraries in the US, the Boston Public
Library, has suffered a cyber attack. The library is currently experiencing
an outage of its online services in the wake of the attack.

Boston Public Library Cyber Attack

According to the security notice from the Boston Public Library (BPL), the
service is facing technical outages after the cyber attack. Alongside
sharing a detailed statement, the library has also posted a short message
on its website stating online outages. It reads,

"The library is currently experiencing a significant system outage and
online library services that require login are unavailable."

As elaborated in the statement, the library faced the attack on August 25,
2021, following which it experienced a system-wide outage. The incident
affected its public computer and printing services alongside pulling its
online services offline.

Consequently, the library had to shut down the affected systems to contain
the attack.

Following the incident, BPL coordinated with the law enforcement
authorities regarding the investigations. Besides, they manage to continue
the services as they can.

"The Library’s IT department is working on restoring all technology
services, and in the meantime, all locations will remain open, patrons will
still be able to check out books, and some online services remain
operational. This is an ongoing situation and the library will update
patrons and staff about services and impacts on its website."

BPL has found no evidence of impact on “sensitive employee or patron data”
during the incident.

While the library hasn’t presently described details about the incident,
the way it was executed hints at a ransomware attack. Though, BPL assured
to share more details soon.

Boston Public Library is a huge municipal public library system that has
also attained the status of Boston Landmark. The library’s collection
includes over 23.7 million items that include some rare books and
manuscripts as well.
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