The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa was recently the target of a ransomware attack, and more than three weeks later is still working to recover full functionality, with some employees working remotely.
“We have begun a gradual return to the office,” communications director Douglas Chow told Artnet News in an email. “Progress and connectivity by department continues, most recently online systems for ticketing, membership and shop are now operational.
A forensic investigation is underway, with assistance from third-party cybersecurity experts and the Canadian Center for Cyber Security.
The museum detected the attack after a disruption to its computer systems on April 23, the Citizen of Ottawa. The museum has lost some “operational information,” the museum told the newspaper May 9, while stressing that payment systems remain secure and that no private information, such as members’ credit card information, is lost. had been compromised.
“We have taken this incident very seriously,” Acting Director and CEO Angela Cassie said in an email. Citizen. “Our primary focus was the protection of personal or sensitive information and the safe operation of the gallery.”
The museum, which remained open throughout, emailed applicants for membership about the May 9 attack, assuring them that the gallery does not store any credit card or bank card information. throughput in its systems, reported the Citizen.
The National Gallery was established in 1880 and has over 75,000 works of art among its collections.
The institution has been the subject of heated debate, with several former staff members writing in a letter to the Minister of Canadian Heritage that the institution is in danger of becoming “cultural irrelevanceafter a series of layoffs in recent years, including chief curator Kitty Scott and senior curator of Indigenous art Greg Hill. On Instagram, Hill claimed that the gallery’s Indigenous Ways and Decolonization department was run in “colonial and anti-Indigenous ways.”
THE Globe and Mail reported that the layoff manager was receiving up to $300,000 a year in fees, which would be higher than the salary of the last chief executive, Sasha Suda, now director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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