Uni WiFi is down after cyber attack

The UK’s computer network for educational and research institutions is down due to a persistent denial of service attack.

This morning the uni’s computing services department set a message warning students of the connectivity loss which has affected Eduroam and Vital.

The message says: “9:58 we are currently experiencing issues with the Janet network we will provide updates as and when we receive them.”

An announcement in the library declared that it has been caused by “unknown sources”.

On the student portal, there is service warning announcement that reads: “Online journals are currently unavailable, student digital university is currently unavailable, staff digital university is currently unavailable. Last checked today at 11:08.”

More reason for a meltdown in the SJ

The Janet network which serves over 18 million users prides itself on being “highly reliable and secure.”

A spokesperson for Janet said: “We are currently experiencing further connectivity issues caused by a denial of service attack.

“Our network engineers and security department are currently investigating to put the necessary blocks in place. Further information will available as soon as possible.”

The network is run by the public body Joint Information Systems Committee, Jisc. Jisc Tweeted this morning saying: “We suspect that those behind today’s DDOS attack are adjusting their point of attack based on our twitter updates.”

A spokesperson for Janet told The Tab: The attack has hit our global transit links and its sustaining a lot of traffic. We don’t have an ETA yet but all hands are on deck to resolve the issue.”

Laptops in the SJ yesterday could not access the servers and external users were being kicked off the wifi.

Second year Lucy is hugely frustrated by the network failure and as a result will not be going to the library today to work. She told The Tab: “I was going to go to the library and do some work today but seems like there’s no point now so I may as well stay in bed and watch CSI: Miami. If I fail my degree, I’ll blame Janet.”

Pharmacology student Rob has also been affected and the cyber attack also caused problems with yesterday’s assignment submission:”It’s actually ridiculous. Revision time for January exams is here and I can’t get lecture slides and recordings from Vital. I had a deadline for yesterday and there were issues with submitting work.”

JMU have also been hit, and sent out text messages to their students.