Howard Temporary Cancels Classes Due to Ransomware Cyberattack
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Posted By: Kennedy Williams on September 07, 2021 Howard University recently announced that all classes would be canceled Tuesday, September 7th, due to a Ransomware Cyberattack that took place late last week. Check out the full letter that went out to students below: Dear Howard University Community, On September 3, 2021, the Howard University information technology team detected unusual activity on the University’s network. In accordance with our cyber response protocol, and to mitigate potential criminal activity, Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) intentionally shut down the University’s network to investigate the situation. The situation is still being investigated, but we are writing to provide an interim update and to share as much information as we safely and possibly can at this point in time, considering that our emails are often shared within a public domain. Based on the investigation and the information we have to date, we know the University has experienced a ransomware cyberattack. ETS and its partners have been working diligently to fully address this incident and restore operations as quickly as possible; but please consider that remediation, after an incident of this kind, is a long haul – not an overnight solution. We are currently working with leading external forensic experts and law enforcement to fully investigate the incident and the impact. To date, there has been no evidence of personal information being accessed or exfiltrated; however, our investigation remains ongoing, and we continue to work toward clarifying the facts surrounding what happened and what information has been accessed. In order to give our IT team more time to address the issue, we are canceling classes for tomorrow, Tuesday, September 7, and the physical campus will be open to essential employees only. Campus Wi-Fi will remain down until we determine the best and safest path to stand it up. Some applications are stored in the cloud and will remain active and accessible. You will be able to access them in the usual manner. If you are not able to access apps, please know that it is an intentional effort being performed by ETS, and there is no reason to call the Help Desk to try to get it up and running. Each day at 2 p.m., we will let you know the status of campus operations for the next day. This is a moment in time for our campus when IT security will be at its tightest. We recognize that there has to be a balance between access and security; but at this point in time, the University’s response will be from a position of heightened security. For your convenience: Both dining halls will remain open. Nonessential employees are expected to remain home. Some apps are accessible. Others are not. This is a highly dynamic situation, and it is our priority to protect all sensitive personal, research and clinical data. We are in contact with the FBI and the D.C. city government, and we are installing additional safety measures to further protect the University’s and your personal data from any criminal ciphering. You will receive additional communications from ETS over the course of the next few hours and continuing into the next few days, especially surrounding phishing attempts and how to protect your data online beyond the Howard University community. If you receive any information or witness any suspicious activity, please report it to helpdesk@howard.edu. Thank you for your support. Excellence in Truth and Service, Tashni-Ann Dubroy, Ph.D., MBA, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Anthony K. Wutoh, Ph.D., R.Ph., Provost & Chief Academic Officer If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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Kennedy Williams
From Loganville, GA Spelman College class of 2020 Member Since July 2016 |
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