Baker & Taylor

Baker & Taylor, the world’s largest distributor of books to over 5,000 public and academic libraries globally, suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted its core operations for over a week. The attack crippled critical infrastructure, including phone systems, offices, and service centers, severely hampering the company’s ability to fulfill orders and support its vast library network.With $4.6 billion in annual revenue, the prolonged outage poses significant financial and reputational risks. The company has not disclosed whether customer or employee data was compromised, but the system-wide shutdown—including servers—indicates a severe operational halt. Baker & Taylor has explicitly stated it will not pay the ransom, opting instead to restore systems from backups, a process that may extend downtime further.The attack’s scope suggests it threatens the organization’s existence by paralyzing its primary business functions, potentially leading to loss of clients, financial strain, and long-term trust erosion among its library partners. While no direct data breach (e.g., customer/employee records) has been confirmed, the operational collapse aligns with high-severity impacts where core services are incapacitated.

Source: https://www.acronis.com/en/tru/posts/library-services-firm-baker-and-taylor-hit-by-ransomware/

TPRM report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/baker-taylor

"id": "bak2502025092425",
"linkid": "baker-taylor",
"type": "Ransomware",
"date": "5/2025",
"severity": "100",
"impact": "5",
"explanation": "Attack threatening the organization’s existence"

{'affected_entities': [{'customers_affected': '5,000+ public and academic '
                                              'libraries',
                        'industry': 'book distribution (libraries)',
                        'location': 'Charlotte, North Carolina, USA',
                        'name': 'Baker & Taylor',
                        'size': '$4.6 billion annual revenue',
                        'type': 'private company'}],
 'description': "Baker & Taylor, the world's largest distributor of books to "
                'libraries worldwide, confirmed it is still working on '
                'restoring systems after being hit by ransomware more than a '
                "week ago. The attack impacted the company's phone systems, "
                'offices, and service centers. The company has stated it does '
                'not plan to pay the ransom demand.',
 'impact': {'brand_reputation_impact': 'Potential reputational damage due to '
                                       'prolonged service disruption',
            'downtime': '>1 week (ongoing at time of report)',
            'operational_impact': 'Significant disruption to services for '
                                  '5,000+ public and academic libraries',
            'systems_affected': ['phone systems',
                                 'offices',
                                 'service centers',
                                 'servers']},
 'investigation_status': 'Ongoing (system restoration in progress)',
 'ransomware': {'data_encryption': True},
 'references': [{'source': 'Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud (mention in article)'}],
 'response': {'communication_strategy': 'Public confirmation of incident and '
                                        'restoration efforts; no ransom '
                                        'payment planned',
              'incident_response_plan_activated': True,
              'recovery_measures': ['system restoration (ongoing)'],
              'remediation_measures': ['restoring affected servers']},
 'title': 'Ransomware Attack on Baker & Taylor',
 'type': 'ransomware'}