The University of Michigan has taken its systems and services offline in response to a cyberattack that was detected on Sunday. As a result, some issues have arisen at a critical time, as the security incident occurred shortly before classes began.
The University of Michigan (UM) is one of the oldest and largest educational institutions in the United States. It is estimated that the staff (academic and administrative) exceeds 30,000 people, while it has approximately 51,000 students.
Based on the announcements published on the University's website, a cybersecurity incident caused outages in the educational institution's IT systems and disrupted access to important online services, such as Google, Canvas, Wolverine Access, and email.
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The University of Michigan asked its IT team to restore the affected systems, but administration felt it was offline systems, due to the severity of the incident.
"On Sunday afternoon, after careful assessment of a security incident, we made the conscious decision to disconnect from the internet," a statement from Sunday said.
“We took this action to provide IT teams with the necessary space to address the issue in the safest possible manner.”
This means that wired and wireless internet on campus, M-Pathways, eResearch, DART, and all systems used in student registration have been affected.
See also: Ransomware attack hits Ohio History Connection
Regarding Zoom, Adobe Cloud, Dropbox, Slack, Google, Canvas and Adobe Cloud services, they have been restored and are accessible from external networks, but there may be some issues due to overload.
It is worth noting that the attack occurred before the start of the new academic year, while students and professors were preparing to begin classes.
As a result, UM administration has decided to waive the collection of late or canceled registration fees for the month of August. Additionally, some financial aid programs and refunds will be delayed due to the systems.
The University of Michigan says it is working with outside experts, as well as federal law enforcement, to investigate the attack.
The incident comes weeks after the White House held a meeting with K-12 school principals, highlighting the need to protect schools from ransomware and other hacks ahead of the new school year.
See also: Rhysida ransomware group claims responsibility for PGCPS attack
While primary and secondary schools are typically considered more vulnerable, as they often lack the resources to defend themselves, universities are also a favorite target for hackers.
Cyberattacks on academic institutions, such as the University of Michigan, are increasing in volume and complexity. These attacks threaten the academic community, causing disruption to services, invasion of privacy, and disruption to educational activities. It is essential for universities to strengthen their collaboration with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to protect sensitive information and prevent future attacks.
Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com
