SETU Waterford campuses hit by cyberattack

A significant cyberattack has been detected at South East Technological University's Waterford campuses.

Monday’s classes at Waterford have been cancelled as a result and staff have been told the campuses have been left with no internet and no access to internal emails and other online facilities as a result of the attack.

Staff were told today that the college had experienced "a cybersecurity incident" targeting its IT systems.

SETU said the incident was identified at the earliest possible stage and that its IT team had "moved swiftly to safeguard our IT systems".

It said that currently there was no evidence to suggest that any data or information had been compromised.

The college’s Vice-President for Student Experience David Denieffe told staff in an email that SETU was continuing to monitor the situation closely and that investigations were ongoing.

"Our internal IT team is liaising with external cyber security experts to resolve the issue and minimise any potential impact," he wrote.

The cyberattack has affected only the Waterford campus. Classes elsewhere will continue as normal on Monday, as will apprenticeship classes at Waterford.

"Staff and students on our Waterford Campuses may experience some disruption as we continue to work to resolve the issue" the college said in its email to staff.

Meanwhile an email to Teachers Union of Ireland branch members at the Waterford campus from their trade union said the extent of the damage "is not known and may not be known until the end of next week".

It appears from this email that the college is working on the basis that staff may not have access to the internet for the coming week.

That email said the postponement of Monday’s classes was "to allow staff to plan for delivery of classes, where possible without internet connectivity on campus. There is currently no internet, no file share, no access to [wit.ie email] no on Campus access to Moodle. There is no access to any on-campus ICT equipment", the TUI email informed staff.

The union has advised academic staff at the college to try to use home computers to print up material for classes. The union said it had inquired about possible data breaches and had been told that none so far had been detected.

RTÉ News has contacted SETU for comment.