As you may be aware late last year the British Library was targeted by a hacking group known as Rhysida who launched a cyber attack on them. As a result of this the British Library is experiencing a major technology outage which is affecting their website, online systems, and services, as well as some onsite services. This means that the British Library On Demand service for the inter-library lending of books and document supply is not currently available which is impacting on Loughborough University’s ability to provide access to some material and will continue to do so for the weeks to come.
It has been confirmed that this was a ransomware attack, and that some personal data such as names, email addresses, postal information and any passwords used to access British Library services including EThOS has been obtained for registered users. Some of this information has been made available on the dark web including some personal user information. Due to this anyone who has an account with the British Library, now or in the past, should assume that their password is now publicly available along with the email address associated with that account.
As the British Library services are currently unavailable it is not possible to change any passwords for their services at the moment, but it is very important if you have used the same or similar passwords for accessing any other online service, you change these immediately. It also means that there is an increased risk of individuals being targeted for fraud and phishing attacks using the personal data obtained from the cyber attack so please do be extra vigilant at this time.
The University provides guidance on digital security and staying safe online on its webpages, information on this attack is available direct from the British Library and the NCSC provides advice on staying safe online. but if you do have any concerns or questions in relation to any of this please contact IT.Services@lboro.ac.uk