Laurentian University recovering from ‘cyber incident’

A “cyber incident” that has affected multiple IT services at Laurentian University since Sunday has been reported to law enforcement.

This includes the university’s website, which is still mostly down, except for its main page, which is currently only displaying information about the IT outage.

Sudbury.com reached out to Laurentian University’s communications department Feb. 21, asking for an interview with the most appropriate administrator. 

A spokesperson for Laurentian said “unfortunately all of our leaders are focused on the problem at hand and would not be available to provide an interview.”

The university spokesperson added that “we are updating Laurentian.ca (now functional) with the latest updates and have recently added an FAQ with 21 questions on the cyber issue. We will be updating it as often as possible and our teams are doing everything they can to bring the systems back online.”

A statement posted to the university’s Facebook page Feb. 20 said Laurentian is “currently recovering from a cyber incident that first came to our attention on Sunday morning, February 18. 

“Upon our discovery, we immediately took steps to secure our network and mobilize our expert partners to assist. We are in the process of re-establishing the services, investigating, and understanding the incident’s impact.”

The university said its response to the incident “has caused the disruption of various IT services. We do not expect payroll to be disrupted by the incident; we will be able to confirm in a further update.”

The statement said the IT team “has been working diligently and will continue to do so until we are able to restore services. We appreciate that this incident raises a significant privacy concern, and we will be providing updates and sharing more information when we have it. We have reported the incident to law enforcement.”

The FAQ section on Laurentian’s website indicated that the issue has been contained, and that credentials (usernames and passwords) have not been compromised.

Laurentian’s campus remains open, but food services are limited to the Great Hall, and the library is closed.

The university is currently on its winter break. A FAQ section said the university plans to resume classes on Feb. 26, as scheduled. If any changes are required, a communication will be issued before 4 p.m. Friday afternoon.

University employees were encouraged to work remotely Feb. 20 and 21 until internet access is restored. If additional remote working days are required, an update was to be issued. 

The university said it will communicate with employees and students through a static website at laurentian.ca and social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X). 

Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.