Community Government

Library confirms ‘cybersecurity event’ caused outage

The Pierce County Library system confirmed Tuesday that a “cybersecurity event” caused a multiweek outage affecting services at its branches around the county.

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The library system sent a letter to patrons acknowledging that “an outside entity gained unauthorized access” to its network. The library discovered the problem on April 21 and took its computer network systems offline. 

The library’s statement said that some data was taken, though details remain unclear and the investigation continues. The library said it will contact “individuals whose personally identifiable information was impacted. … As a practice, the Library minimizes the amount of personal information collected from library users.”

When Gig Harbor Now asked a library spokesperson last week if the system had been hacked, the spokeswoman said only: “The investigation is ongoing.”

The library’s statement said: “The initial systems investigation took about three weeks and included work with over a thousand individual systems, servers, software, and databases. This thorough process was necessary to scan for malware, identify possible data removal, and retrace the unauthorized individual’s steps to understand the extent of the breach.”

The library engaged cybersecurity experts and notified law enforcement when it became clear a crime had occurred. “We continue to coordinate with cybersecurity professionals as we move into the next stage of response to the incident,” the library wrote. 

Many services remain unavailable as of Tuesday, May 13, according to the library’s website. 

“Significant progress has been made in the secure restoration of our systems, and full restoration is within sight,” the library wrote.