University confirms 'cyber security incident'

The University of Wolverhampton confirmed it was hit by a 'cyber security incident' on Tuesday

The University of Wolverhampton has confirmed it was hit by a "cyber security incident" earlier this week which led to IT systems going down.

Thousands of university staff and students were asked to work from home after IT issues began on Tuesday across all of the university's campuses.

A spokesperson said: "We were able to respond to this incident extremely quickly and took immediate action to contain it and limit its impact."

It came as the University of Cambridge and the University of Manchester suffered cyber attacks on the same day.

The BBC's cyber correspondent said the activity there was linked to a group protesting over "the UK's continued support of Israel".

There has been no confirmation on whether those parties were involved in disruption in Wolverhampton.

However, several sources told the BBC the university was referring to the incident internally as a cyber attack.

A University of Wolverhampton spokesperson said: "Working with external IT security experts, we can now confirm that the university has experienced a cyber security incident.

"We had to take some of our systems offline which resulted in some disruption to teaching.

"We have now put measures in place to conduct remote lectures in the short-term, alongside in-person teaching on campus where that is appropriate."

The university has campuses in Wolverhampton, Walsall, and Telford.

'Very confusing time'

Motorsports engineering student Rowan Ashby said the problem had left him with no wi-fi or access to online resources on campus.

As a result, he said he had gone home to the North East as it was the only way he could work and attend online lessons.

When asked whether the university had given an indication of how long the issue could persist he said he did not know.

"Some people have been saying it could last up to six months, two weeks. It's a very confusing time right now."

In an internal memo seen by the BBC, the incident was referred to as "a serious cyber incident which is now being managed as a University major incident".

A spokesperson for the university said: "Our investigation into what happened remains ongoing and is still in its early stages.

"Our experts have advised that this investigation will take some time to complete owing to its complexity, but we will provide our staff, students and partners with updates as soon as we can."