British Library cyber attack costs still unconfirmed

The costs of the cyber attack on the British Library (BL) are unconfirmed, though it has been it reported it could lose about 40% of its reserves, with its Public Lending Right (PLR) payments one of the many services affected. 

After suffering a ransomware attack by a criminal group called Rhysida in October, the BL has experienced major disruption to its services. The hackers breached the library’s systems, destroying some parts and releasing data onto the dark web, and the library’s collection could not be retrieved in the London and Yorkshire reading rooms.

Hackers published hundreds of thousands of stolen files online, including customer and personnel data, after the library refused to pay a £600,000 ransom. But the institution now reportedly has to spend about 10 times that amount rebuilding most digital services at an estimated cost of £6m-£7m, with only £16.4m in unallocated reserves, according to the Financial Times. The British Library’s online catalogue remains unavailable. The BL reportedly paid £250,000 to the cyber security provider NCC Group to respond initially to the attack.

While physical sites are open, users must wait while librarians run through logs and find items on shelves, according to the FT. The BL 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”.  

A government insider told the FT that the BL would be expected to draw down from its reserves to recover following the attack. Authors and academics have described how the situation has impacted on their work and Matthew Eddy, a history professor at Durham University, said his work has been placed “in limbo” because of it.

A phased return of the library’s services is due to begin on 15th January but it is unknown when it will be fully operational.

The cyber attack also means that PLR payments will not be paid as expected to authors, the Guardian has reported. Author Damian Barr told the newspaper: “As advances are squeezed and publisher profits shared unequally, this payment can make a big difference.”

A spokesperson for the BL said: “The final costs of recovering from the recent cyber attack are still not confirmed.

“The British Library and its Government sponsor, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), remain in close and regular contact.

“The library always maintains its own financial reserve to help address unexpected issues and no bids for additional funding have been made at this stage.”

On PLR, it said: “We are making good progress towards issuing UK PLR payments before the end of March, in accordance with government legislation. We recognise the importance of these payments for authors, illustrators, translators, narrators and everyone who contributes to books and are planning to issue a further update, with a finalised timeline, by the end of this month.”