Thwarted cyberattack targeted Library of Congress in tandem with October British Library breach – By David DiMolfetta (Nextgov) / May 8, 2024
Multifactor authentication prevented hackers from accessing the U.S. institution’s systems in the October campaign, documents show.
The Library of Congress was targeted in a cyberattack that occurred in parallel with a high-profile intrusion into the United Kingdom’s British Library in late October, but the hackers failed to access the U.S. library’s systems, according to internal documents obtained by Nextgov/FCW.
The attempted breach occurred around Oct. 28, the same day the U.K.’s national library began reporting technical issues on its website. The cybercriminals were unsuccessful because LOC had multifactor authentication — a method that digitally verifies a user logging into a system — enabled at the entry point of the hackers’ incursion.
Library IT staff also quickly shuttered targeted services once the attack was detected, the documents said. Since then, LOC has been decommissioning legacy equipment and integrating new security tools into its networks.
