LOWELL, MASS. (WHDH) - The University of Massachusetts Lowell on Wednesday announced that it is beginning to incrementally bring technology systems back online as it continues to investigate a cybersecurity incident that closed the campus Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We continue to maintain control of all of our IT systems,” said Michael Cipriano, chief information officer at UMass Lowell. “While some organizations in this situation may have continued to operate their IT infrastructure while trying to address the impact, out of an abundance of caution, we suspended all network access to minimize any potential damage while we work with our cybersecurity forensic partner to identify and restore our systems.”
A cyber forensic firm is offering guidance and helping to analyze data to close any breaches that are discovered, Cipriano added.
The university is said to be “prioritizing the restoration of core academic systems and databases, including Blackboard and Zoom, which provide online course delivery and video chat functions.”
Customer service functions have also been impacted as many of the central databases where university officials gather information are temporarily offline.
The university will resume business operations on Thursday but classes will not be held as officials work to extend the current summer session to make up for days lost to the outage.
The university will be closed on Friday as well in recognition of the Juneteenth holiday.
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