Heading into university for the lecture on Postmodernism on the 20th Feb I got all the way to the foyer of the building and found out that there was going to be nobody allowed in the building on this day.
Denial
No real reason was given but there had been an incident and there was no network available including wifi, so we were all to have a day off and go and take some photos ahead of the exhibition which is coming up after Easter.
We had few communications from the Uni so as I left the MK building and prepared to go back to work I thought about it and figured that there had been a cyber attack. That was the only thing it could have been.
If it had been an active shooter style event the doors wouldn’t have been open to allow us in to find out about the cancellations. The fact that the network was all off smelled like a cyber attack and all of the external facing systems such as MyWLV, Canvas and eVision were all down.
With a history of working in IT I know what happens in the event of an attack, it is a quick disconnect and bolt everything down. Disconnect all network and pc equipment to prevent more gettign infected than needs to be. Only once you have the main cause and it’s effects of the issue under control do you start allowing people to carefully join the network.
As I was on the way back to the car, I noticed a phone pole by the fence of the MK building with the cables torn out so thought I’d mention it to the facilities staff but the answer I got was, it’s not related to that.
Attack
Once I’d got back to work and started attending an audit bein gasked lots of questions about processes and controls, I mentioned it to a colleague who knows someone in the Wolves IT team. My colleague asked me what I was doing in work, as I’d normally be away on Tuesday and I suggested it was likely a cyber attack. He must have gone to talk to his acquaintance in the IT Team as the next day he said that I was right and there had been a cyber incident.
The next few weeks were a challenge and the systems have been slowly being upped but there is still many a person who doesn’t have their computers running yet as they’re in quarantine.
It will take a while and I’m glad they’re getting over the worst of it. Once it was in the newspapers it became apparent that Manchester, Oxford and Wolverhampton were all victims of the cyber attack. The IT Pro article below points out that it is believed to be Anonymous Sudan that has attacked the three universities.
https://www.itpro.com/security/uk-universities-left-scrambling-in–wake-of-cyber-attacks
With the network down and no lectures, Sylvia emailed us to go out and take photos for use in the Practice module. I did this on the weekend after when I visited London to meet up with two of my brothers and on the way back I spent a bit of time on a road trip. More to come on this trip later.
Freshened Up
On the way back to the car I also noticed that the statue of Sir Jack Hayward had recently had a paint refresh, but I thought that there was previously no paint on it, looking back at a photo of same statue in 2021 I can see that there was some very faded paint on it. Funny how you notice some things and not others.
Be First to Comment