King’s College, Cambridge without Wi-Fi for six days after cyber ‘incident’

Since the early hours of Friday morning (26/11), King’s College Cambridge has been left without wireless internet. In an email to students seen by the Tab, Phillip Isaac, the Domus Bursar of King’s College described that the college is a “victim of a serious computer incident.”

The Wi-Fi incident has resulted in the “loss of access to files on the college server” and to the non-academic King’s College staff email accounts. The Bursar continued that the college was “advised by the specialist forensic team to switch off its network” to “diagnose the issue and prevent further damage.”

One King’s college student told The Tab: “The entire situation is ridiculous, very little concern seems to have been shown for individuals, I know several people who have had to miss online supervisions and appointments because there is nowhere private available to us.

“Many students have very little signal so the use of 4G is near impossible which combined with very vague communication from the college has left us all very frustrated.”

Following the email on Friday, King’s students have received further emails from the college on the 27th, and 28th of November which have outlined that the college is still working to fix the issue.

An email from the IT support at King’s College on Saturday outlined that ethernet cables would be available from the Porter’s Lodge from Sunday. A King’s College spokesperson has also told The Tab that they have made unlimited data SIM cards “available to students who are experiencing difficulties.” The Bursar has also indicated that both Queens’ and Selwyn colleges have provided space for King’s students to access and study in.

The email added that they “recognise the inconvenience this causes and would like to thank you for your continued support and patience.”

Students have expressed their discontent with the situation (Image credits: Camfess)

Students have taken to the Cambridge University confessions page, Camfess to express their discontent, with one post describing the situation as “genuinely shocking”

 “We’re heading into three days of strikes where we have no access to the benefits of Wi-Fi in or rooms or any in of the college sites.” They continued: “there is literally nothing to tell us when this might end.”

Concern has been expressed regarding person information. (Image credits: Kingsfess)

Other students took to Kingsfess, a King’s College specific confessions page. One student pointed out that communication “regarding what exactly the hackers did” would indicate whether students’ personal information has been compromised, whilst others claimed to be “sat in spoons, because pints to access their Wi-Fi costs less than data in college.”

A spokesperson for King’s college commented: “King’s is currently experiencing some temporary disruption to the College’s network following an IT security incident. As soon as we became aware of the incident we engaged third-party IT specialists to support us in restoring our systems as quickly and safely as possible, in order to minimise the impact on our students, staff and partners.

“Ethernet cables and unlimited data SIM cards have been made available to students who are experiencing difficulties in connecting to the internet. The third-party IT specialists have also launched an investigation into the incident and we have informed the Information Commissioner’s Office. We recognise the inconvenience caused and would like to thank everyone for their support and patience on this matter.”

Feature image credits: Matilda Head