Cambridge University hit by DDoS attack

According to Varsity, students were notified by email of the attack, which disrupted access to services including eduction platform Moodle and CamSIS, the University’s system for handling student information, records and transactions.

It is not known whether the DDoS attack was used a cover to steal information. Multiple universities have reported a malicious denial of service attack which started around 15:00, making internet access intermittent. Incoming connections to websites, VLE, VPN will also be impacted.

— Clinical School Computing Service (@Cambridge_CSCS) February 19, 2024

In a post on X, The Clinical School Computing Service said on Monday that it was working with the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) to restore services. In a later post at 8.45 am on Tuesday it said the disruption appeard to be “largely over.”

The University’s IT Service page shows CamSIS to be operating mormally at the time of writing (11.30 am) although Moodle and Lecture capture (Panopto) are still “degraded”.

Other educational establishments which use the JANET academic backbone network operated by Jisc were also reportedly affected, among them the University of Manchester University.

The hacking group Anonymous Sudan claimed responsibility for atticking the universities of Cambridge and Manchester, citing the UK’s support for Israel.

Despite its name and apparent hacktivist activities in support of Muslim causes, security analysts believe Anonymous Sudan to be a Russian outfit. It emerged in January 2023 and has claimed multiple DDoS attacks on organisations and companies including Microsoft.

In a screenshot circulating on social media, purportedly from its Telegram channel, the group claims it attacked the universities of Cambridge and Manchester because of the UK’s support for Israel and bombing of Yemen.