Ex-Marcelsky University, one of the oldest in France, was forced to shut down its network after being hit by a cyber attack. All employees were sent home after they were unable to access the university network due to the attack.
The leadership of the university has described the attack as having “emanated from another country.” The university’s security systems issued a timely warning about possible compromise, which allowed specialists to turn off the network before any significant damage was caused.
The ex-Marcel, which is located in southern France, was founded in 2012 by merging multiple universities. One of those universities, the University of Provence, was founded back in 1409. The ex-Marsel University is now home to approximately 80,000 students, more than any other university in the country.
It is not yet known what type of cyber attack occurred, and it is still unclear whether any data was compromised. The representative of the ex-Marcel stated that they would inform the law enforcement agencies if any data leak was discovered.
“The very fast reaction of our services made it possible to avoid potentially significant damage,” said Clara Bufi, the director of the University of Communications.
The university website was not accessible on Wednesday, but it was back up again on Thursday. However, students and staff still cannot fully use the university’s internal systems. Classes are still being held as usual.
The university plans to gradually restore the full performance of all its systems and services, but the length of this process remains unclear.