Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assistance they intend to provide to the British Library to aid (1) its recovery from the ransomware attack on 31 October 2023, and (2) the continuation of its research services; and what additional measures they have put in place to assist British institutions to (a) improve overall resilience, and (b) defend against cyberattacks.

The National Cyber Security Centre and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have been working closely with the British Library since the cyber-attack it sustained in October 2023. DCMS formed an incident response team, providing security guidance, recommendations and support to the British Library, and officials from the Department continue to work with their counterparts at the British Library.

The British Library is working hard to restore its services and began a phased return of key services on 15 January 2024.

Despite the cyber attack, the British Library’s buildings have remained open and well-used throughout, and it has maintained some key services including reading room access for personal study and some limited collection item ordering, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and onsite retail. In the immediate aftermath essential services such as WiFi and event ticket sales were quickly re-established.

On 15 January, the British Library restored a searchable online version of its main catalogue, comprising records of printed books, journals, maps, music scores and rare books.

The Government Cyber Security Strategy sets out our plan significantly to harden the Government’s critical functions against cyber attacks by 2025, with all Government organisations across the public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities no later than 2030. We are working closely with publicly-funded institutions to enhance their overall cyber-resilience and to ensure that these targets are met.