FT.com [read free]: “The British Library will drain about 40 per cent of its reserves to recover from a cyber attack that has crippled one of the UK’s critical research bodies and rendered most of its services inaccessible. The London-based institution, which stores nearly 170mn pieces of work ranging from books to sound recordings, was forced offline in October after a “deep and extensive” ransomware attack. Hackers published hundreds of thousands of stolen files online, including customer and personnel data, after the library refused to pay a £600,000 ransom. But it will now be forced to spend about 10 times that amount rebuilding most digital services at an estimated cost of £6mn-£7mn, according to a person familiar with the matter, consuming a sizeable proportion of its £16.4mn in unallocated reserves. The British Library’s online catalogue remains unavailable. Physical sites are open, but users must wait while librarians run through logs and find items on shelves. The British Library said it was in “close and regular contact” with its government sponsor, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, but no formal bid had been made for government funds and it “maintains its own financial reserve to help address unexpected issues”…”