Key Takeaways From the British Library Cyberattack

In October 2023 the British Library was hit by a Rhysida ransomware attack that took down major online services and resulted in the exfiltration of roughly 600GB of files (including 22 databases and employee documents); investigators traced unauthorized access to a Terminal Services server lacking MFA, attackers used credential compromise, keyword searching and native administrative tools to copy data, deleted logs to cover tracks, demanded ~20 BTC, and leaked materials after the ransom was not paid, costing the institution approximately £7M in recovery and prompting lessons on MFA, segmentation, governance, and defense-in-depth.