Cybersecurity and Libraries

ABSTRACT

Librarians are concerned about patron privacy and the confidentiality of library records. Many libraries also have other types of sensitive or restricted data. One of the biggest risks to the data a library maintains is a cyberattack. These attacks can be of many different types but one of the most common and impactful is a ransomware attack. This paper looks at the issue of cybersecurity in libraries and offers some recommendations of steps librarians can take in order to better protect their libraries from the risk of a cyberattack.

KEYWORDS:

• Cybersecurity
• cyberattack
• ransomware
• privacy
• library data

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).