But they might not have the resources to set up adequate defenses against hacking. Some public libraries benefit from their small size and less complicated infrastructure, giving hackers less places to infiltrate. IT budgets at public libraries are not as comprehensive as in other organizations. First, libraries rely heavily on layers of IT infrastructure, like electronic catalogs, public wifi access, and public computing terminals. Libraries are at higher risk than other organizations for a few reasons, according to Sandblade. Sandblade explained his worries as a matter of risk and probability, saying, “Ransomware is one of the few risks that is both highly probable and impactful. Weekly news headlines of successful ransomware attacks that have debilitated whole companies and organizations are fairly common now.” Mark Sandblade, who has spent six years as Information Technology Manager at the Library System of Lancaster County, said that ransomware is a significant concern for the modern public library and in his opinion, the greatest IT security threat he faces. Because of COVID-19 related closures and scheduling, Northampton thankfully didn’t see a huge disruption to their work, but lending was out of the question with the catalog down. The result: closure for two weeks as their IT firm sorted out the malware problems. And that was when we knew it was a ransomware attack.” Then a staff member noticed that the files on her computer were encrypted, which we relayed to our IT company. They were having problems trying to remote-into our servers, which was the first red flag. “We decided something may be wrong with our server or that something was updating so we contacted the IT company we use. In November 2020, as Sentz and her staff went through their morning routine, they noticed errors logging onto personal workstations and their catalog. Sentz said that while she had heard about ransomware attacks on the news, she hadn’t considered her library particularly high risk.
Susan Sentz, the Director of the Northampton Public Library in Northampton, PA, led the response to a ransomware attack on her library in late 2020. The demand is often in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Ransomware is the name for a particular type of cyberattack where hackers encrypt a victim’s files, then demands a ransom to give users access to their files.
Corporations, including nonprofits like public libraries, face greater dangers from these attacks. Malicious hacking attacks of institutions are on the rise, particularly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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