British Library left counting the cost of cyber-attack

In most countries, it would be a major scandal if foreign hackers successfully mounted a major cyber-attack on the national library. Unfortunately, the UK does not seem to be one of them. On 28 October, the British Library suffered a major incident which has brought the venerable body to its knees. Yet you would scarcely know that one of the largest such institutions had been crippled, judging by the rather-muted response in parliament and beyond.

Still, Mr S has done his part to shine a light on this unedifying episode, firing off Freedom of Information (FOI) requests at every turn. Initially staff told Steerpike that ‘we will not be in a position to action or respond to your request until our systems have been fully restored’. Happily though, the systems have since recovered somewhat. For the costs incurred to date for the Library as a direct result of the cyber-attack in the first ten weeks after 28 October was £155,227.