Cyber Attack on University Duisburg-Essen

The University of Duisburg-Essen has been the target of a cyber attack. As a result, the entire IT infrastructure has been shut down and disconnected from the Internet. Central services such as PC applications, e-mail and telephone are currently not available. The University's IT specialists are working diligently to assess the damage and restore the systems, but it remains unclear how long this will take.

The attack took place over the past weekend (26–27 November). After hackers penetrated the internal systems, they encrypted large parts of the servers, demanding payment for decryption. The university management has informed the responsible security authorities and filed a report. External specialists have also been called in.

According to an initial assessment, all Microsoft Office applications, internal administrative systems and email traffic are affected. The telephone system is also out of operation.