London’s world-famous British Museum was compelled to partially shut its doorways on the finish of final week, following a critical safety breach involving a former IT contractor.
As The Guardian studies, police had been known as to the museum on Friday after a not too long ago dismissed employee allegedly trespassed onto the museum website and was capable of shut down numerous techniques, together with the museum’s ticketing platform.
As a consequence, guests confronted important disruptions, with many unable to entry galleries and exhibitions which might be normally open to the general public.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that it had been known as to the museum at 8:25pm on Thursday, following studies that “a person entered the British Museum and brought about harm to the museum’s safety and IT techniques.”
They confirmed {that a} man in his 50s had been arrested on suspicion of housebreaking and legal harm. He has since been bailed.
“An IT contractor who was dismissed final week trespassed into the museum and shut down a number of of our techniques. Police attended and he was arrested on the scene,” a spokesperson for the British Museum advised the media on Friday. “We’re working arduous to get the museum again to being totally operational however with remorse our non permanent exhibitions have been closed at this time and can stay so over the weekend – ticket holders have been alerted and refunds provided.”
The unexpectedly dramatic flip of occasions, at a museum usually recognized for its sedate ambiance, has raised considerations concerning the safety at considered one of Britain’s best-known cultural establishments.
What has not been made clear is how an unauthorised individual was capable of achieve bodily entry to the pc techniques. It’s thought of good observe to revoke people’ entry – each bodily and digital – to techniques after they depart the employment of an organization, by revoking passwords and taking away ID badges.
It is attainable, in fact, that ID badges and key playing cards weren’t taken away from the IT contractor when he was dismissed, or that the museum was as a substitute relying upon much less safe methods of controlling entry to privileged areas – akin to a mix keypad.
The one comfort is that it seems the suspect was caught within the technique of inflicting the alleged harm whereas on the positioning itself. Though, in fact, it might have been significantly better if that they had not been capable of achieve entry within the first place.
The British Museum says that it has initiated an intensive evaluation of its safety protocols to forestall comparable assaults occurring sooner or later. These measures embody a assessment of its entry controls and monitoring techniques to make sure that solely authorised workers can enter delicate areas of the museum.
The museum says it’s also evaluating whether or not it must strengthen the cybersecurity measures it has in place to defend its IT infrastructure.
Taking the chance to assessment its cybersecurity actually makes a whole lot of sense, because the British Museum will not be alone in going through challenges associated to cybersecurity.
In October 2023, the British Library – just like the British Museum, an iconic establishment that preserves and showcases an unlimited array of cultural heritage and data – was hit by a ransomware assault that’s estimated to have value it thousands and thousands of kilos and nonetheless impacts a few of its providers.
In mild of such incidents, extra museums are investing in superior safety applied sciences and coaching for employees to recognise and mitigate potential dangers.
The British Museum is stuffed with treasures from all over the world, however it’s going through rising strain to return artefacts taken from different nations.
Probably the most notable instance is the Parthenon Marbles, historic sculptures faraway from Athens by Lord Elgin within the early nineteenth century. For many years, Greece has been campaigning for his or her return.
