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Campus of the University of Duisburg-Essen: More than 41,000 people study here
Photo: Hans Blossey / IMAGO
A hacker attack disrupts everyday life at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
As the university itself announced, its computer systems were the target of an attack over the weekend.
In response to the attack, the entire IT infrastructure was shut down and disconnected from the network.
As a result, central services such as the e-mail system, Microsoft Office applications and internal administration systems are no longer available.
The university's landline telephony is also affected by the problems, they say.
The attack is a so-called ransomware attack: The attackers penetrated the internal systems and, according to the university, encrypted "large parts" of it.
They then demanded a ransom, the amount of which the university has not yet provided any information on.
According to Rector Barbara Albert, the hackers are also threatening to publish data captured during the attack on the dark web.
This form of double blackmailing of victims is now common in ransomware attacks.
The case is now being dealt with by the cyber experts at the Cologne public prosecutor's office.
According to the WDR, the authority expects a difficult investigation.
A spokesman told the station that experience has shown that such attacks can be traced back to international hacker groups.
In the current case, one is so far at an early stage and is still investigating unknown persons.
Work may be handed in later
With more than 41,000 students, the University of Duisburg-Essen is one of the largest universities in Germany.
Your website has been severely restricted since the incident, and you can only access a kind of stub version.
However, at uni-due.org there is an information page specifically for students and staff on the internet.
There it says that IT specialists at the university are already in the process of assessing the damage and restoring the affected systems.
However, it is unclear how long this will take.
The information on the info page gives an idea of how much the attack will affect everyday university life.
For example, it states that the deadlines for all examination papers to be submitted in writing will be extended by a flat rate of 14 days.
It is also made clear that no certificates and transcripts of grades can currently be issued, nor certificates that refer to information from the campus management system.
There are also restrictions in the university library: the WLAN and the PC workstations there are not available, and the printers and copiers are also out of order.
In addition, according to the information, "the majority of e-books and electronic journals" can no longer be used.
The university’s information page and its social media channels say that teaching will “continue as usual in person,” “unless the students receive any further information about their faculties.”
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