Cyberattack behind major system outage at London Public Library

A major system outage at the London Public Library that's knocked out electronic borrowing and the website is being investigated as a "cyber incident".

The library said the outage started Wednesday morning and resulted in three branches having to shut their doors.  

"All I can say at this point is that I know we're a critical resource for a lot of Londoners but we will keep them up-to-date as much as we can," said library CEO Michael Ciccone on London Morning Thursday.

The library is having to rely on its social media channels to communicate with the public. Ciccone said experts are investigating but the impact of the incident has not been determined.  

Toronto's library hit

On Oct. 28, the Toronto Public Library (TPL) was also the victim of a "cybersecurity incident" with work still underway to restore services. That library did not pay a ransom to recover the stolen material.

TPL has said personal information — including the names, birthdays, social insurance numbers and home addresses — of employees was stolen in the attack. 

"We expect that it will take us some time to restore our systems," said Ciccone. 

The Carson, Glanworth and Lambeth branches will remain closed until next week. In-person borrowing is available at the library's other branches, and currently the wifi at branches is not available.