While the return of full services at the Calgary Public Library isn’t expected until December, members will be able to access their accounts, as well as return books and place holds, starting on Thursday.
It’s the second of three stages the institution is taking to recover from a cybersecurity incident on Oct. 11 that forced the closure of all 22 branches across the city.
Services have been modified since then as a security measure to avoid any theft of information, according to Mary Kapusta, the library’s director of communications and engagement.
“Unfortunately, the service disruption was unavoidable for us to protect that data,” she said.
Kapusta added there’s no exact date for when services will return in full.
The library is still moving toward a phased-in, full-scale reopening. The last phase will see restoration of the full suite of technological services at the library.
Cybercriminals looking for bigger profits have increasingly turned to public institutions like libraries for their next payday. The CBC’s Helen Pike speaks to experts who give context to the latest victim of a cybersecurity breach: the Calgary Public Library.
“I’m actually kind of impressed that they have managed to bring back their services as quickly as they have,” said library patron Rebecca Hummel.
“I was expecting the services to take longer to fix since most of the library services and systems are digital in nature.”
Kapusta acknowledged that the security systems did what they were supposed to do, saying an investigation into the October incident confirmed that no business, employee or member data was compromised.
However, she noted the attack also highlighted some issues that need to be worked on.
“In some ways, our recovery has allowed us to accelerate some planned improvements that were already on the deck for the work plan next year,” she said.
“The total cost of what this all has had, the impact, we won’t know that yet because we’re still working through our recovery. But we will share that through our public reporting with our board when we can.”