A cyberattack that hit Okanagan College earlier this week continues to affect the post-secondary institution.
On Wednesday, the college announced that its information technology (IT) team interrupted a cyber-security incident on Monday morning at 6:15 a.m., “which involved an unrecognized external agent.”
“IT services responded quickly by shutting down and disabling network access across all our campuses within 45 minutes, and launching an investigation to understand the extent of the situation,” Okanagan College president Neil Fassina said in a press release.
The college said not only did it ask for help from external cybersecurity experts, but that its network is still offline.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the cyberattack, our network services continue to be offline. And this morning, the outage has impacted our public website and learning management site,” said the college.
“It has also impacted our ability to send all-user emails to our students and staff.”
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Fassina says the college is working hard to restore network access as soon as possible.
“Please be assured that we take privacy and the protection of personal information of our students and staff very seriously,” said Fassina.
“We are working to determine whether any personal information has been compromised. Although it is a priority for us to restore access to the network as soon as possible, we must do this in a safe and secure way.”
In the meantime, the college says its users should be highly vigilant in protecting their data from potential identity theft and fraud, and to be wary of unusual emails or text messages in the days head claiming to be from Okanagan College and asking for personal information.
“Do not send personal information,” said Okanagan College, “unless you are confident the communication is authentic.”
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