The British Library is restoring its main catalogue online after a crippling cyber attack published hundreds of thousands of stolen files online and destroyed the institution’s website.
A reference-only version of the catalogue, which contains over 36 million records, was due to come back online on Monday but problems are expected to still drag on for up to a year.
Rebuilding its database will drain 40 per cent of the British Library’s reserves, between six and seven million pounds, according to reports.
Last year criminals knocked out the library’s website, which is used by over 11m people a year.
They also took down WiFi inside the building beside London St Pancras Station preventing users ordering material from the library’s 150m-strong collection.
Hackers from the Rhysida group also published stolen files, including customer and personnel data, after bosses refused to pay a £600,000 ransom.
On his blog last month, the Library’s boss Sir Roly Keating acknowledged the scale of the problem.
He wrote: “The Library itself remains a crime scene, with a forensic investigation of our disrupted network still ongoing.”
“We are sorry that for the past two months researchers who rely for their studies and in some cases their livelihoods on access to the Library’s collection have been deprived of it,” he added.
In October, it was announced the National Cyber Security Centre and cybersecurity specialists would investigate the attack.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, the institution said at the time: “We’re continuing to experience a major technology outage as a result of a cyber-attack. This is affecting our website, online systems and services, as well as some onsite services too.
“Following confirmation last week that this was a ransomware attack, we now have evidence that indicates the attackers might have copied some user data, and additional data appears to have been published on the dark web.
“We will continue to work with cybersecurity specialists to examine what this material is and we will be contacting our users to advise them of the practical steps they may need to take.”
The library is collaborating with the Metropolitan Police and says analysing data from the breach is likely to take several months.
British Library’s chief executive Sir Roly Keating said in November.: “We are immensely grateful to our many users and partners who have shown such patience and support as we work to analyse the impact of this criminal attack and identify what we need to do to restore our online systems in a safe and sustainable manner.
“It is too soon to offer an exact timetable, but we will provide regular updates as we progress this vital work.”
