A CYBERATTACK HAS been detected on South East Technological University’s campus in Co Waterford.

Students attending the institution in Waterford were informed today that classes will be cancelled on Monday. Staff will begin preparing resources to teach offline if the issue persists.

In a statement, the university confirmed the incident, adding that there is no evidence any data has been breached. The attack has only impacted IT systems on the Waterford campus.

Staff at South East Technological University (SETU) have informed the relevant Government departments and state agencies, it said. The Department of Higher Education and the Department of Communications are aware of the issue.

The case has now been referred to the National Cyber Security Centre, a spokesperson told The Journal. It is working closely with SETU to resolve the issue.

In an email sent to staff this evening, SETU informed academic teams that the appropriate arrangements will be so that planning and other meetings can take place on its Waterford campus.

“Our internal IT team is liaising with external cyber security experts to resolve the issue and minimise any potential impact. However, staff and students may experience some disruption as we continue to work to resolve the issue,” a spokesperson said.

The incident is one of many similar major cyberattacks on universities in Ireland in recent years. In February last year, staff and students’ personal data had been breached in an attack on Munster Technological University’s Cork campus.

In 2020, a number of third-level education institutions - including Maynooth University and NUIG - were affected by a hack after which their software and cloud management systems provider, Blackbaud, paid a ransom in exchange for stolen files being destroyed. 

SETU is made up of three separate technological institutions, in Co Waterford, Co Carlow and Co Wexford, which were joined together in 2022 and established as a single university under plans signed off by Government in 2013.

The university has some of the largest apprenticeship programmes in the country, which will largely be unaffected by today’s cyberattack.

Clarification: An earlier version of this article has been corrected to clarify who paid the ransom in the 2020 hack referenced. Maynooth University did not pay any ransom in relation to the cyberattack. More details about that case can be found here. 

Additional reporting by Eoghan Dalton