Douglas County Libraries hacked by overseas criminal group

It's been over a week since Douglas County Libraries were the victim of an international cyber-attack and they're still in negotiations with that criminal group.
The entire system, from the online catalog to placing holds and even checking out books in person wasn't working.
When the library's IT team investigated, they found a calling card left by hackers.
In October, the FBI issued a cybersecurity advisory about the group, stating they've been behind at least 300 known ransomware attacks worldwide.
Pasicznyuk does not believe the recent controversy involving the library board choosing not to ban certain books was a factor.
It's not clear how the hackers got into the system.
Pasicznyuk says the library recently had a cybersecurity audit and received an A+ rating.
Luckily, the library has cybersecurity insurance, and they're working with a cybersecurity firm to recover from the hack.
The library is not sharing the hackers' demands or if they're complying, but says they are in ongoing negotiations.
Pasicznyuk says no personal information of library users was compromised.
After a one-day system blackout, the library has slowly been re-activating services.
The last week has been a return to the old-school library experience.
Now, about half of online library services have been restored, Pasicznyuk says most of what hasn't been is internal.
Library users can expect intermittent website disruptions in the next few weeks as service is fully restored.
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This Cyber News was published on www.cbsnews.com. Publication date: Wed, 24 Jan 2024 01:44:04 +0000


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