Washington D.C’s Howard University has canceled classes after becoming the latest educational institution to be hit by a ransomware attack.
The incident was discovered on September 3, just weeks after students returned to campus, when the University’s Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) detected “unusual activity” on the University’s network and intentionally shut it down in order to investigate.
“Based on the investigation and the information we have to date, we know the University has experienced a ransomware cyberattack,” the university said in a statement. While some details remain unclear — it’s unknown who is behind the attack or how much of a ransom was demanded — Howard University said that there is no evidence so far to suggest that personal data of its 9,500 undergraduate and graduate students been accessed or exfiltrated.
