Met latest: Peter Gelb battles major cyber attack, likely Russian

The Metropolitan Opera’s website has been down now for two full days due to what was initially described, with classic Gelb evasiveness, as ‘network issues’.

We kept hearing otherwise.

It has now been confirmed that the Met came under a massive bot attack, apparently from a Russian source. The Met has been taken offline, unable to sell tickets or communicate for 48 hours.

At 3:22 pm yesterday, Gelb shared this email with company members:

Dear Members of the Company,
Unfortunately, we’ve experienced a cyber attack that has temporarily impacted our network systems. Upon discovery of this, we launched an immediate investigation into the nature and scope of the incident. While web experts work to resolve the situation, our systems are down. It will take time to restart them, since we first have to make sure that our systems are no longer infected and are secure, This means that for the time being we are unable to process paychecks or use Met email, our Tessitura System, or any of our other internal systems.

Once there has been a fuller assessment of the impact of the attack over the next 24 hours, we will provide an information update. We are working as quickly as possible to get this difficult situation resolved.

Performances and rehearsals will take place as scheduled. Please stay in touch with your department supervisors. We understand how stressful this is for the members of our company, and thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
Peter Gelb

The source is suspected to be Russian since Gelb and his wife Keri-Lynn Wilson have been outspoken in their denunciation and boycott of artists who support the Putin invasion of Ukraine. The FBI has been notified and is investigating the source of the attack.