The Canadian academic institution, the University of Waterloo, has been the subject of a ransomware campaign that impacted its email system.
According to the school vice president, the university had prevented an attempted ransomware attack last month and has been working to mitigate the effect of the initial breach that started the cyberattack. This incident impacted academic institutions and is currently the home of over 40,000 students.
The University of Waterloo experienced a compromise to its on-campus MS Exchange services.
Based on reports, the University of Waterloo noticed unusual activity in its on-campus Microsoft Exchange email services, which led to the discovery of the ransomware attack. Fortunately, the school immediately addressed the incident and saved those only using their cloud-based emails.
However, the attack still forced the institution to temporarily deactivate the email system, prohibiting logging in to emails or creating new accounts. Students have also noticed that they could not sign into their educational platforms with email usernames and passwords.
The vice president has also explained that their institutions are aware of the breach involving email services, which they have already isolated. Fortunately, most of the MS Exchange accounts are within a safe location and did not suffer more issues.
This detail also implies that most emails used within the campus did not experience any consequences. The university also announced that they would continue their investigation and isolate services that will show signs of interruption.
Furthermore, the school stated that it executed a widespread system shutdown last week, which spanned nearly six hours. Unfortunately, some of the effects of the ransomware attack have affected the library’s online resources, such as Omni and course reserves. The University of Waterloo organised a town hall to explain the incident to its faculty and students, which raised some concerns.
Lastly, the university vice president stated that resetting the affected portion of the system is successful and noted that the students and faculty should change their passwords before June 8. Individuals who miss the deadline will not be able to access their accounts and will need the help of the school’s IT team to reset their accounts manually.
