U of Windsor websites still down in week-long ‘cybersecurity incident’
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It’s been more than a week since most of the University of Windsor’s major online systems went down in what has been described as a “cybersecurity incident” — and there’s still no word on when operations will return to normal.
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In an update posted Tuesday on uwindsorsupport.ca — the information portal created by the institution to update the thousands of students and staff affected by the outage — the university stated the situation is continuing.
“Upon discovery of the incident, steps were immediately taken to secure our systems and mitigate the impact to our data and operations,” the update reads — repeating statements the university gave on June 22.
“A full investigation is being conducted with the support of leading external cybersecurity experts and it is our highest priority.”
Asked to elaborate on the nature of the incident, University of Windsor spokesperson Renee Trombley could not provide further information, and pointed to the uwindsorsupport.ca site for updates.
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There are ongoing efforts to resolve the situation “as soon as possible,” Trombley said, along with efforts to “ensure operations, research, and scholarly activities continue to run as smoothly as possible.”
The university’s online systems — including its main website, Blackboard course management site, and UWinsite Student services site — first became unavailable on the morning of June 20.
Monday was the first day of classes for students enrolled in the university’s summer session.
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Studies have shown that cyberattacks and hacking activity have surged worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic — and such incidents were already on the rise before it.
In 2020 alone, 39 per cent of Canadian businesses and institutions had encounters with ransomware, according to the Sophos State of Ransomware Report.
A type of malware, ransomware threatens to block access to a system or publish its sensitive data unless a monetary amount is paid.
A cybercrime report by Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that 2021 saw a global doubling in the financial damage caused by cybercrime — from US$3 trillion worldwide to US$6 trillion.
dchen@postmedia.com
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