London’s world-famous British Museum was compelled to partially shut its doorways on the finish of final week, following a severe safety breach involving a former IT contractor.
As The Guardian reports, police had been referred to as to the museum on Friday after a lately dismissed employee allegedly trespassed onto the museum web site and was capable of shut down numerous programs, together with the museum’s ticketing platform.
As a consequence, guests confronted vital disruptions, with many unable to entry galleries and exhibitions which are normally open to the general public.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that it had been referred to as to the museum at 8:25pm on Thursday, following studies that “a person entered the British Museum and precipitated injury to the museum’s safety and IT programs.”
They confirmed {that a} man in his 50s had been arrested on suspicion of housebreaking and prison injury. 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 programs. Police attended and he was arrested on the scene,” a spokesperson for the British Museum informed the media on Friday. “We’re working exhausting to get the museum again to being absolutely operational however with remorse our non permanent exhibitions have been closed at the moment and can stay so over the weekend – ticket holders have been alerted and refunds supplied.”
The unexpectedly dramatic flip of occasions, at a museum usually recognized for its sedate ambiance, has raised issues concerning the safety at one in every of Britain’s best-known cultural establishments.
What has not been made clear is how an unauthorised particular person was capable of acquire bodily entry to the pc programs. It’s thought of good observe to revoke people’ entry – each bodily and digital – to programs once they depart the employment of an organization, by revoking passwords and taking away ID badges.
It is attainable, after all, 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 – comparable to a mix keypad.
The one comfort is that it seems the suspect was caught within the means of inflicting the alleged injury whereas on the positioning itself. Though, after all, it might have been a lot better if that they had not been capable of acquire entry within the first place.
The British Museum says that it has initiated an intensive evaluation of its safety protocols to stop related assaults occurring sooner or later. These measures embrace a assessment of its entry controls and monitoring programs to make sure that solely authorised employees 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 definitely makes numerous sense, because the British Museum will not be alone in dealing with challenges associated to cybersecurity.
In October 2023, the British Library – just like the British Museum, an iconic establishment that preserves and showcases an enormous array of cultural heritage and information – was hit by a ransomware attack that’s estimated to have value it tens of millions of kilos and nonetheless impacts a few of its companies.
In mild of such incidents, extra museums are investing in superior safety applied sciences and coaching for workers to recognise and mitigate potential dangers.
The British Museum is full of treasures from around the globe, however it’s dealing with rising stress to return artefacts taken from different international locations.
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.
