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Following the confirmation that the major outage it has been suffering since last month was the result of a cyber attack, data belonging to the British Library is reportedly for sale by the Rhysida ransomware group.
The threat actor posted a low-resolution image to its leak site with sample data, including passports and employment documents.
“With just seven days on the clock, seize the opportunity to bid on exclusive, unique, and impressive data,” the ransomware group said on its leak site.
“Open your wallets and be ready to buy exclusive data.
“We sell only to one hand, no reselling, you will be the only owner.”
Rhysida held an auction to sell the stolen data, with the deadline for bidding ending on 27 November at 8am UTC.
The British Library is yet to confirm that the claims made by Rhysida are true, but it has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to say that its services are still down and that it is aware that some data was stolen.
“We’re continuing to experience a major technology outage as a result of a cyber attack, affecting our website, online systems and services, and some onsite services too,” said the British Library.
“We anticipate restoring many services in the next few weeks, but some disruption may persist for longer.
“Following confirmation last week that this was a ransomware attack, we’re aware that some data has been leaked. This appears to be from our internal HR files.”
We’re continuing to experience a major technology outage as a result of a cyber-attack, affecting our website, online systems and services, and some onsite services too. We anticipate restoring many services in the next few weeks, but some disruption may persist for longer.… pic.twitter.com/Wdj7VfkWXa
— British Library (@britishlibrary) November 20, 2023
Despite data having been stolen, the British Library has failed to find any evidence that the data has been used. However, it has engaged security measures just in case.
“We have no evidence that data of our users has been compromised.
“In the meantime, we’ve taken targeted protective measures to ensure the integrity of our systems, and we’re continuing to investigate the attack with the support of NCSC, the Metropolitan Police and cyber security specialists,” it said.
The British Library is one of the largest in the world, containing over 150 million items, 13.5 million of which are printed books.
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