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Cyber security breached at St Cross

St Cross College experienced a cyber attack on Wednesday, resulting in a loss of internet across the college.

Students were alerted to the situation yesterday after internet services were deactivated.

In a post on Facebook, St Cross said: “We are sorry to report that an IT failure continues to mean the loss of WiFi across the estate. We realise the inconvenience this causes and have an expert team on the case.

“WiFi has now been restored throughout the West Wing on the main site. We will update on progress elsewhere early this afternoon.”

All Oxford students received an email from the University Information Security team shortly after St Cross’s services were dis-activated to outline precautionary steps to prevent a similar attack from happening again.

The Security Team said: “We have seen a rise in phishing emails to staff and students; as well as a malware incident earlier this week that had a serious impact on some parts of the University.

“This activity has now been confined, and there is no indication that personal or sensitive information has been compromised.”

The guidelines to prevent future attacks include installing Antivirus, taking care to be wary of strange emails, and take immediate action if you are affected.

The University have advised students to, in suspicious circumstances, immediately disconnect computers from the network and inform IT support staff.

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