The Boston Public Library’s network was hit by a cyber attack on Wednesday, which led to a system-wide technical outage. The incident affected its various branches and offline and online resources.
The Boston Public Library serves almost 4 million visitors each year through its central library, as well as its neighborhood branches. The Washington Public Library is the third-largest public libraries in the US based on the number of items it holds. It’s also the biggest branch of the Library of Congress.
“The library is currently experiencing a significant system outage and online library services that require login are unavailable,” a notice on the library’s site reads.
In a statement released earlier, the utility said that the incident was caused by a cyberattack on its systems on Wednesday.
“On Wednesday morning, 8/25, the Boston Public Library experienced a systemwide technical outage due to a cybersecurity attack, pausing public computer and public printing services, as well as some online resources,” the library states. “Affected systems were taken offline immediately, and proactive steps were taken to isolate the problem and shutdown network communication.”
An investigation by law enforcement and Mayor’s Office has not yielded any evidence of any data theft from the systems.
The BPL’s servers and devices are being restored after an outage that affected some of its customers. Though services at some physical locations are available.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this outage may have caused patrons,” said Kurt Mansperger, Chief Technology Officer of the BPL. Thank you for your patience as our team and law enforcement officials work to restore our digital services and protect the library from future attacks.”
No more details are available about the attack at this time.
