âPeople have had to move houseâ Inside the British Library two years on from devastating cyber attack The Independent

pNotifications can be managed in browser preferencesppPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inppSwipe for next articleppStaff tell Athena Stavrou theyâve faced abuse because of ongoing issues at the library where dozens of services remain unavailable ppFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing Whether its investigating the financials of Elon Musks proTrump PAC or producing our latest documentary The A Word which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messagingppAt such a critical moment in US history we need reporters on the ground Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the storyppThe Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum And unlike many other quality news outlets we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone paid for by those who can afford itppHome to more than 170 million items including Magna Carta the British Library is one of the worldâs largest and most impressive book collectionsppHowever in October 2023 a major cyber attack plunged it into chaos shutting down its digital systems and resulting in the leaking of staff details onto the dark webppTwo years on staff â who are striking due to a pay dispute â have said the disruption is still creating chaos and considerably increasing their workloadppThey say they have faced abuse as a result of the ongoing issues while some have had to make major changes in their personal lives after their personal details were leakedppOne worker who asked to remain anonymous said staff have âessentially had to become the computerâ due to the hackppâModern libraries are digitally focused â everything is done online from orders to content â so when the cyber attack happened library systems were just taken downâ they told The IndependentppâWe had to do everything manually To do orders we had to write things down on a piece of paper and pass it to the next department which takes a lot of timeppâStaff have literally had to learn the locations of all the items â they have become the ordering system become the computerâppWhile they now use a digital form to place orders staff still have to input information manually which takes considerably longerppMeanwhile dozens of services at the library are still unavailable including ebooks its archives and manuscripts catalogue and online journal articles This has meant staff have suffered abuse from frustrated members unable to access the materials neededppâAs you can imagine there has been a lot of user frustration as things arenât working properly so frontfacing staff are facing abuse and have even had things thrown at themâ the staff member saidppAt the same time they have faced having their personal details including addresses and passport scans leaked onto the dark web after the library refused to pay a Â600000 ransom feeppâPeople have had to move house There are staff members here who have experienced domestic abuse who are worried their address is available and it took months to get an apologyâ the staff member saidppStaff have also reported constant fraudulent calls emails and text messagesppThey added âThe cyber attack is on everyoneâs minds it was two years the other day and nothing has improved â there hasnât really even been a thank you for the hard work people did during those two yearsppâIt has impacted our work environment people feel underappreciated and itâs frontfacing staff who have basically been running the organisationppâThen on top of that we had a belowinflation pay rise We have staff who work here during the day then have to go to another job in the evening People are really disappointed and upsetâppMore than 300 members of the library staff have gone on strike over their wages on the second anniversary of the attackppThe Public and Commercial Services union PCS which organised the industrial action said staff are âforced to work second jobs and take out loans to pay their bills and meet housing costsâppThe union said that while the British Library has increased its pay rise from 2 per cent to 24 per cent it âis still way below inflationâppMembers are demanding an inflationproof pay rise restoration of last yearâs pay shortfall and payment of alternative working patterns AWP wages for security staff on compressed hours ppThe PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said âA near unanimous vote for strike action is just a small glimpse into the strength of feeling among our members at the British Library ppâThey are livid at yet another insulting pay offer that does little to alleviate the health problems that many suffer from because of low pay Nor does it come close to ending the need for many to work second jobs and take out loans to pay their bills and meet their housing costsppâThe employerâs wellpaid executives need to take the blinkers off and understand that our hardworking members are what make the British Library the vital cultural institution that it isâppA British Library spokesperson said âWe acknowledge the impact that the devastating criminal cyber attack upon the British Library two years ago has had on our staff and users and we are continuing to restore systems and services While we cannot comment on the experiences of individual staff members we are committed to working with Trade Union colleagues to agree a pay awardâppJoin thoughtprovoking conversations follow other Independent readers and see their repliesppPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inp