Seattle Public Library Under Attack

By Jean Godden
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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.

https://www.postalley.org/2024/07/13/seattle-public-library-under-attack/