Hacker Wreaks Havoc With King County Library Computer System
The computer that links and controls the 39 branches of the King County Public Library has been hacked twice in three weeks, crashing the system and throwing the operation into chaos.
Evidence left by the hacker in the second incident, Friday, has been passed on to police and the FBI, library director Bill Ptacek said.
“It’s malicious,” he said. “There’s absolutely no financial gain to be made from it.”
Damages from the first crash have been estimated at $155,000 in extra staff time and lost fines - just about equal to one branch’s annual budget for new books, videos and music.
There was no dollar figure available on the second crash. The system was still down Tuesday morning, though it was expected to be operating again soon with new security measures.
The library is particularly vulnerable because its computer system is designed to be accessible by users, who can tap in to reserve books, do research and order materials from different branches. The computer also is used to track books and tapes and to dispense overdue notices.
“We have 20,000 people a month dialing in and connecting up to the computer system. To provide security and give people access - it’s a problem,” Ptacek said Monday.
“If somebody really wants to (hack), it’s a game and they’ll probably win. We’re not the Pentagon or something. We want people to use the system.”
Both crashes were caused by unauthorized hacking that destroyed entire sections of computer code.
“Circulation software and parts of the bibliographic database were just wiped out,” Ptacek said, though backup tapes were available.
Computers are a key tool for modern libraries, but there is little recourse when they go down.
“That’s the beauty and the bane of this system,” spokeswoman Jeanne Thorsen said Tuesday.
In the aftermath of the crashes, librarians were checking out books by hand, rather than by scanning bar codes - a much slower process.
“Everything we have to do is slower now,” said librarian Marilyn Hanna-Myrickat of the Mercer Island Library. “All the reference work is basically being done out of our heads.”
People have been understanding, library officials say.
The Jan. 13 crash left about one-third of the library’s volumes of books, movies or music in limbo. It took 12 days to fully restore the system.
Librarians had not finished checking in the backlog when the computer crashed again Friday night.