First screen, captured 3 days ago. Open the video.

Queens Public Library under ransomware attack

What HN thinks

Hackers encrypt the catalogue; librarians shrug and switch to the honor system.

Libraries keep getting hit
Commenters list Seattle, Toronto, Westmount, Delaware and the British Library as prior victims, noting recoveries can take months or years and most did not pay.
Poor target, but likely untargeted
Many find attacking a cash-poor library despicable or pointless, while others argue ransomware is automated and indiscriminate, with price discrimination, customer support and insurers paying out.
NYC's three library systems
A tangent on Queens, Brooklyn and NYPL being separate systems, open to all New York State residents, with Queens cards sold worldwide for $50 a year.

Consensus: Most agree attacks like this are common, rarely worth paying, and that recovery is slow, especially with legacy systems and online backups.

Recommended in the comments

Darknet Diaries (other): Mentioned as having covered ransomware gangs' customer support operations.
Libby (product): Holding cards from several NYC systems in Libby improves availability and separate borrowing limits.

Summarised by Claude from the comment thread 3 days ago.

Points: 191
Comments: 106
Best rank: #2
Posted: 2026-11-10 by rustyhancock
Category: Security

ransomware queens-public-library libraries network-outage cyberattack new-york

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