New York's Queens Public Library battles ransomware crims: Wi-Fi, checkouts, and website go dark

New York City's Queens Pu­blic Li­brary (QPL) is battling a ran­som­wa­re at­tack, it con­fir­med on Wed­nes­day eve­ning via so­cial media and to pa­trons di­rectly. The dis­rup­tion has dow­ned QPL's web­si­te, on-site com­pu­ters, check-out and re­turn ma­chi­nes, its pu­blic Wi-Fi, mo­bi­le app, and its di­gi­tal media ser­vi­ces. Re­ne­wals are also una­vai­la­ble, although li­brary users are not char­ged fines for re­tur­ning ma­te­rials late. (Since 2021, In Oc­to­ber 2021, QPL, Brooklyn Pu­blic Li­brary, and New York Pu­blic Li­brary - in an ef­fort to help lower in­co­me users from being put off bo­rro­wing - per­ma­nently ki­lled daily late fines on books and cir­cu­la­ting ma­te­rials.) Each of the li­brary sys­tem's three bran­ches re­mains open, in­clu­ding the cen­tral li­brary in the Ja­mai­ca neigh­borhood in Queens, but QPL war­ned: "it will take some time be­fo­re the li­brary's net­work and sys­tems are res­to­red." QPL said "cer­tain vir­tual and in-per­son pro­grams may be im­pac­ted," ad­vi­sing vi­si­tors to check avai­la­bi­lity with their local branch via phone, and check the li­brary's so­cial media chan­nels for of­fi­cial up­da­tes. "Our IT de­part­ment is wor­king to re­sol­ve the issue, and we will keep you in­for­med,” it said in the sta­te­ment. It added: "We apo­lo­gi­ze for any in­con­ve­nien­ce and ap­pre­cia­te your pa­tien­ce." No es­ta­blished ran­som­wa­re group has yet clai­med res­pon­si­bi­lity for the dis­rup­tion, although at­tacks on pu­blicly fun­ded ins­ti­tu­tions ra­rely lead to lu­cra­ti­ve pa­youts. The Bri­tish Li­brary's in­fa­mous ran­som­wa­re at­tack in 2023 at the hands of Rhy­si­da saw the or­ga­ni­za­tion re­fu­se to pay the cri­mi­nals' 20 Bit­coin ran­som de­mand, op­ting ins­tead to drain its cash re­ser­ves and fork out mi­llions for an IT re­build. Although the li­brary's res­pon­se to the at­tack drew wi­des­pread prai­se, few ins­ti­tu­tions of its kind are in a fi­nan­cial po­si­tion to fo­llow its lead. Other li­bra­ries might not be wi­lling or able to com­mit to a re­co­very pe­riod as lengthy as that of the Bri­tish Li­brary. In its 2025/26 an­nual re­port, pu­blished in July, the ins­ti­tu­tion said its re­co­very is still in­com­ple­te, and work to fully res­to­re cus­to­mers' abi­lity to pur­cha­se elec­tro­nic re­sour­ces, such as jour­nals and re­search da­ta­ba­ses, and reopen ac­cess to elec­tro­nic legal de­po­sit con­tent is on­going. This is li­kely to be com­ple­ted by the end of 2026, the Bri­tish Li­brary added. ®…