Toronto Public Library reaches ‘major milestone’ in recovery from October cyberattack
Posted February 29, 2024 5:14 pm.
Last Updated February 29, 2024 5:25 pm.
The Toronto Public Library says it reached a “major milestone” with the restoration of its catalogue, search features, and customer accounts four months after a cyberattack crippled its website and likely exposed sensitive employee information.
In an update posted on Thursday, library officials say customers can now browse and search the catalogue, place and manage holds, renew items and view borrowing history and saved lists. However, officials say some features such as updating notification preferences and renewing library cards online are still not available.
“We’ll be reintroducing these functionalities shortly. In the meantime, customers can go into any of our branches for assistance,” the library said in a statement.
“Restoring systems and services across 100 library branches is a complex undertaking, and we’re nearly there.”
The library says it has also made great progress in putting materials into circulation and expects to finish processing all stored items by March 4.
Public computer workstations have been reinstated at all 100 branches and customers can reserve time using the library’s online reservation system, by phone, or in branch.
The library said the Oct. 28, 2023, attack brought down its website and network of public computers across its 100 branches and likely exposed the names, social insurance numbers, government identification, and addresses of employees dating back to 1998.
The library says it did not pay the ransom but was aware some of the stolen data might have ended up on the dark web.
