Hundreds of museums hit by cyber attack
Hundreds of art institutions and museums have been affected by a cyber attack on the Gallery Systems software company, with those impacted previously using the software to organise their online archives.
Last month, Gallery Systems informed its clients that computers using its software had become encrypted and could no longer operate. They launched an investigation, enlisting third-party cybersecurity experts to advise, and also looped in law enforcement.
Gallery Systems confirmed they had immediately taken steps to “isolate those systems” and implemented measures to “prevent additional systems from being affected”, which included taking systems entirely offline as a precautionary measure.
Among the affected institutions were the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
After the Christmas period, curators returned to work to discover they couldn’t access sensitive information such as the names of donors, storage and shipping information and loan terms on artworks.
Erin Thompson, a professor of art crime at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The New York Times: “Often, generations of curators will have worked to research and document an artefact. If this information is lost, the blow to our knowledge of the world would be immense.”
This latest development comes after several other cultural powerhouses have dealt with the aftermath of their own cyber attacks. Last year alone, the British Library was targeted by a ransomware group that posted human resources files online, and the Philadelphia Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera both suffered their own online attacks.
