Major U.S. library service confirms ransomware attack, struggling to restore affected systems

Major library supplier Baker & Taylor is struggling to bring systems back online after a ransomware attack last week.

The nearly 200-year-old company calls itself the largest supplier of library content, software and services to public and academic libraries in the U.S. 

Baker & Taylor published a notice on its website on Monday confirming that it had been hit with ransomware that began during the weekend of August 19. The company has been working to remediate the cyberattack since then.

“Our IT team and outside experts are working nonstop to restore our systems,” the company explained. 

The company did not respond to requests for comment and no ransomware group has come forward to claim credit for the attack. 

In its first message announcing the attack on August 23, the company said several of its systems and applications were affected alongside the phone systems at its offices and its service centers.

pic.twitter.com/QcFEEaALlL

— Baker and Taylor (@BakerandTaylor) August 23, 2022

It expected systems to be down for the week, but noted on Monday that systems are still down.

The company released a similar message the next day, noting that they had hired an outside cybersecurity firm to help deal with the attack. 

Baker & Taylor offers libraries technological solutions as well as physical and digital content. It offers books, ebooks, audio books, music, videos and more. 

Last month, publishing giant Macmillan similarly struggled to recover from a ransomware attack that crippled its ability to process orders and run its warehouses in several countries.