Cambridge university medical IT system targeted by hackers

The University of Cambridge said the incident was contained

Hundreds of researchers at the University of Cambridge have been unable to access a computer system because of so-called "malicious activity".

The problem was found five weeks ago on its Clinical School Computing Service, used for high profile medical studies.

The university said there was no evidence any data had been taken and the incident was contained.

Other university IT systems were unaffected and working as normal.

In a statement, the university said relevant authorities had been informed and restoring files and service had begun but "will take some time".

A spokesperson would not elaborate on the nature of the "malicious activity" but confirmed their was "some ongoing disruption" to services.

Clinical School Computing Service is an IT system used by students and institutes based at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

To protect sensitive data being used by the researchers, the university took some of its IT systems offline but the institution could not say when normal service would resume.

An external investigation took place and found no evidence data had been taken, the university added.

The incident is the latest in a long line of high profile institutions to have its systems targeted.

In February, hackers disrupted computer services at the University of Cambridge and Manchester in protest over what they called Britain's support of Israel.

In October 2023, the British Library had data stolen and shared on the dark web. It affected operations for months.

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