OSAKA - Osaka Metropolitan University has suspended classes across all faculties after a suspected ransomware attack shut down about 500 servers and disabled key campus systems, while officials investigate whether personal information relating to at least 130,000 students, graduates and employees was leaked.
The university said at a news conference on October 5 that the large-scale system failure was believed to have been caused by a ransomware attack from outside the institution.
The disruption began on October 2, when a failure in the university's core campus network caused about 500 servers and related systems to stop operating simultaneously.
The attack also encrypted much of the university's backup data, leaving internal systems used for classes and assignment submissions unavailable. University email services have also been disrupted.
Classes at all faculties have been canceled through October 8 as restoration work continues.
Students have also lost access to digital services used in their daily university life. A third-year engineering student said his smartphone normally displays his timetable and class assignments, but now shows a message saying a communication error has occurred.
"The digital student ID isn't usable right now either," the student said. "I hope they can restore everything quickly so university life can return to normal."
The affected systems contain at least 130,000 records of personal information belonging to students, graduates, faculty and staff, according to the university.
Officials said they are investigating whether any of the information was leaked outside the university. The university has not disclosed whether the attackers issued a ransom demand.
Despite the continuing disruption, Osaka Metropolitan University plans to resume in-person classes as scheduled on October 9.
Source: YOMIURI
