The Toronto Public Library Is Coming Back From A Hack — Here's What You Can & Can't Do
"The wait is over."
Books inside of a library. Right: The Don Mills Toronto Public Library location.
The Toronto Public Library is back online after a cyberattack several months ago.
On February 29, the library announced that customer accounts were back online, but there are still a few things that need to be done to fully restore services.
The Toronto Public Library shared the good news on X.
"The wait is over! Your Account is now available. Beginning today, you can manage your account online. Search the catalogue, place holds, renew items and more," the tweet reads.
"With this major milestone, we’re another step closer to full recovery of all our services."
Not long after that tweet, the library said they were experiencing technical issues due to high demand online.
"You love us. You really love us," the library said in another tweet.
"However, too much love can be a bad thing. Due to higher-than-usual website traffic, we’re experiencing intermittent technical issues and are working on it. Thanks for your patience."
Before February 29, Toronto library users hadn't been able to access their online accounts since October 2023 after a cyberattack caused the website to shut down.
In a cybersecurity report on February 26, the library said it still wasn't entirely sure what the extent of the breach was, but it has since taken action in terms of security.
"Since the attack in October, TPL has matured its information security program by implementing additional security controls, updated some hardware and software applications, and introduced new processes," the report says.
During the cybersecurity investigation, a privacy breach was announced on November 15, 2023. That's when the library informed current and former staff that names, social insurance numbers, home addresses and other personal information were likely taken.
"Although cardholder, volunteer, and donor databases were not affected, some data about these groups likely resided on the compromised file server," the report adds.
"TPL is currently engaged in an e-discovery process with third-party assistance to determine who is affected and how."
In a service update on February 29, the Toronto Public Library said it hasn't fully recovered since the incident. It also noted that some features aren't available yet, including updating notification preferences and renewing library cards online.
It says it will finish processing all stored items by March 4.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.