2024-01-07 17:54:13
The British Library, in London, has not worked for two months: a computer attack stole everything, catalogs, names, email addresses, telephone numbers of employees and users. And it even made the Wi-Fi connection unusable. The criminal group that carried out the attack calls itself Rhysidalike the centipede, and even put the data package up for sale on the dark web for 780 thousand euros. Roly Keatingthe director of the British Library, said that “those responsible for this cyberattack are hindering everything that libraries stand for: sharing and accessing knowledge.”
I usually have sympathy for hackers, but I really dislike this type of hacker, who I will call culturally unaware. They are also misinformed, another reason why I dislike them. The members of Rhysida naturally asked for a priceless ransom. The British Library plans to make a condensed version of its catalog available online again by January 15. Too much disruption, too much damage, too much malice.
There are many ways to behave as a disturbed, harmful and malicious person. In general, this list of adjectives is attached to someone who carries out meaningless, fruitless, gratuitous evil. Many people behave that way, acting without purpose, thinking only of their own benefit. And that is wrong, you know. In this way thousands of crimes are explained that occur every day throughout the globe, motivated by love, which according to Saint Augustine is the great engine that moves the world, love of whatever, money, war, to death, to life, to the planet or to evil. I can understand that, but attacking a library means love for what? The world laughs at Rhysida or insults him. But so far, as far as I know, they didn’t get a cent. Maybe they love chaos, which is possible.
Let’s move on to something else. When an individual wants to renovate his house, or when a businessman wants, say, to expand his facilities or buy machinery, he goes to a bank and asks for a loan. The bank usually requires a series of guarantees, and if the client is reliable, it gives the required loan, payable with interest within a certain period. If, for example, my name appears in Veraz, it is useless for me to go to the bank, because they will not even hear me. I can turn to a lender, who will require other types of guarantees and interest, precisely because I am not trustworthy. But let’s imagine that I am an artist and I need money to, say, buy a piano. Or let’s imagine that I want to expand the painting workshop where I work, or I want to publish my first book: who could I turn to? There is no organization capable of assisting me taking into account the quality of my work. I mean, if I don’t know how to play Happy Birthday on the piano and I ask for a loan to buy one, in all likelihood they will tell me to learn to play it first and then come back. The same with the money allocated to the painting studio: in all likelihood they will first want to see what I paint, if I am a worthy recipient of such a loan. Such an institution exists. It is called the National Fund for the Arts and of course it is not only dedicated to lending money, but among all the things it is dedicated to, it is precisely that. Many, myself among others, published their first book with a loan from the Fund.
Proposing the closure of the National Endowment for the Arts, and not just proposing it, as you can propose that the Earth is flat, but moving in that direction, is as damaging and malicious as attacking the British Library. As Roly Keating would say, it goes against sharing and accessing art. In short, it is an exemplary love of evil.
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