Seattle Public Library Under Attack

When it comes to tallying Seattle assets, you’d have to count its public library system as the city’s number one treasure. Seattle Public Library (a central building and 26 neighborhood branches) has everything that defines a democracy: an institution dedicated to equity, access to information, intellectual freedom, and openness to all.

Yet it is that number one asset, the city’s most valued resource, that has been struggling these past weeks, working to recover from a cruel ransomware attack. The extortionist attack struck the Seattle Public Library on Memorial Day weekend, affecting its on-line systems, threatening data leaks and demanding an exorbitant sum of money.

Ransomware incidents have risen sharply just this past year. Christie’s Auction House and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center both were hit with demands for outrageous payments. Failure to meet demands risked leaks of personal data.

The Seattle assault wasn’t the first to target public libraries. Libraries in Toronto and Great Britain suffered similar attacks last year. The nature of these recent attacks is puzzling: Why go after public libraries? They seem an odd target since libraries seldom have access to much available funding. Nor do libraries maintain large data banks of personal information.

Locally, the May 28 attack affected Seattle Public’s access to staff, public computers, the library’s online catalog, loan systems, e-books and e-audiobooks. And, while the library’s 27 branches remain open with access to books and materials, check out now requires pen and paper. Until systems are restored, patrons are being asked to forgo check-in and hold onto borrowed books.

The library’s recovery is happening but slowly. Some library services like access to e-books and e-audiobooks have now been restored. Expected to return soon are Wi-Fi access and printing services. There is no estimate when the full system may be up and running. Library spokesperson Laura Gentry reported the library is coordinating with the FBI and the Seattle Police Department and has been understandably limited in what it can share publicly.

To keep the public informed, the library provides a website: shelftalkblog. The blog highlights updates and offers estimates on return other services. Currently it’s projected that computer access will be restored sometime in late August.

Throughout Seattle’s recovery process, the Toronto Public Library, busiest in the world with its 100 branches, has been helpful. Toronto was hit Oct. 28 and took four months to recover. Refusing to bow to the $10-million ransom demand, Toronto chose to rebuild systems while keeping the doors open.

While victims of cyber-attacks have been hesitant to place blame, sources believe attacks likely came from Black Basta, an extortion gang responsible for earlier assaults on organizations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Ransomware gangs tend to be made up of career criminals based in Russia where there is little chance of their facing arrest.

If this disastrous attack has anything like a silver lining, it would be in discovering once again how valuable Seattle Public Library is to this city. Scrolling through the shelf talk blog provides an overview of the many different services: from author events to family story hours, from bookmobile visits to the Ask Me phone line. It’s no exaggeration to say that the attack on the Seattle Public Library was an assault on the beating heart of this city.