British Library chief executive Roly Keating to step down
Roly Keating has confirmed he still step down as chief executive of the British Library in April next year.
He took up the role in 2012 and previously worked at the BBC as a programme-maker and broadcasting executive.
The library’s board has begun the recruiting for his successor.
“When I took on this role in 2012 it was always my hope to serve for 12 years and I will reach that milestone in September this year,” Keating said in a statement. “Being at the helm of the British Library has been – and continues to be – the greatest privilege of my life.
“The years I have served here have seen great achievements as well as times of challenge, including a global pandemic and a major cyber-attack.
“Over the next 12 months my priority is to ensure that our recovery programme succeeds in its goal of leaving the library even stronger and more resilient than it was before – able to serve new communities and new generations of users, and to continue to be a national library that is truly for everyone.”
The library fell victim to a major hack by the criminal group Rhysida last October, which caused major disruption to its online systems and services and destroyed large parts of its IT estate.
The gang demanded £600,000 in bitcoin as ransom for the stolen data, and later attempted to auction off a significant amount of sensitive customer and staff details on the dark web.
The institution has now published a report that aims to provide an overview of the cyber-attack; consider the implications for its operations, future infrastructure and risk assessment; and share lessons learned.
The report states: “Many of the major collections institutions in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport family and the wider sector are likely to have similar risks to the British Library in terms of investment levels in cyber-security, legacy infrastructure, and difficulties attracting and retaining sufficient IT talent.
“A significant part of the national collection, across multiple institutions, now exists in digital form – in some cases digital-only – and we all have a vital interest in ensuring that this vast and growing national asset is protected from increasingly sophisticated and destructive cyber-attacks.
“Investment, boldness and relentless focus are all needed to ensure that we are as secure as we can be against this threat, as the cost of investing in prevention is outweighed by the risk of failing to prevent.”