Photo courtesy of the Wellman Public Library

In late October, the Wellman Public Library got a computer virus called ransomware, which essentially attacked all of their servers and hid their electronic files. The library had not backed up their files at that time, so they believed they had no way of getting them back without paying $2,500 to those responsible. Library Director Carol Wilkins said they didn’t have the money to pay the hackers, and the ransom increased each day, so they closed the library for a week as they began the laborious process of reloading all their patrons and books into their system.

However, help arrived. Wilkins explains, “I talked to my district representative from the state, and she goes, ‘Well, you upload your files to the state for SILO for inter library loan, don’t you?’ And I said, ‘Well yes, I do.’ And she goes, ‘Well, the state has your records!’ So they dumped them and sent them back to us, so basically all that we really lost was the new books that we had put in the last three to four months.” Since recovering their files, Wilkins says they’ve been cleaning and updating them. To prevent an incident like this from happening again, the library is backing up their files to a more reliable system, and looking into moving their records online as opposed to on site. Additionally, Wilkins implores people to be careful about what they click on when on the internet.