From John Sotillo | Director of Information Services 

Following the disruption to our IT services at Canterbury last week, I’m pleased to confirm that the majority of our systems are now back online across the University. The outage was the result of a detected cyber-security incident and the necessary steps we took as a precaution to manage this. For some students and staff, the recovery from the original incident will take some time and we are working closely with affected Divisions to manage this process.

What happened   

Earlier in the week our security systems detected a security breach in a specific area of the Kent network. As a result, Information Services (IS) and Divisional staff took prompt action to contain the initial situation and to prevent the attack from spreading more widely across Kent services and systems. We then progressed to more significant protective actions in order to counter the threat we had identified.

What we have done  

As part of measures taken, we isolated the School of Engineering domain from the rest of the University network and reset some 1,000 affected users’ passwords. A consequence of taking these necessary measures was the loss of authentication for Wi-Fi, wired network connections in student accommodation and student PCs on campus. IS worked swiftly to restore the authentication system, with most services back online within 24 hours.

We are pleased to report that services are now restored across campus, with the exception of the Jennison building, which hosts the School of Engineering domain IT infrastructure. Work to mitigate the impact on Jennison continues and will take some time.

What you can do 

We have strong security procedures and protocols at Kent but we all need to remain vigilant so that we can continue to work safely and securely online. There has been a rise in cyber-attacks on UK public sector / education sector organisations in recent weeks and these attacks have been intense, persistent and disruptive.

With your help, we can reduce our risk of further attacks. Please read our latest advice and guidance about staying safe online and use our online resources to stay educated and stay alert.

We are continuing our work to ensure that University services and systems remain secure. If you experience any problems or have any issues, please contact IT & Library Support.

Thank you for your patience during this time.