Ransomware attack leads to massive disruption in German university

Germany's Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences, or HS Kaiserslautern, has confirmed that its whole IT infrastructure was disrupted by a ransomware attack, impacting almost all of the university's facilities and services, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. HS Kaiserslautern has also urged students and staff members not to use any work computers following the ransomware attack. "As this is an encryption attack, the workstations at the employees' workplaces may also be affected," said the university in a message posted on an emergency website. No details regarding the attackers' identity nor potential data exfiltration have emerged but the intrusion comes after a recent string of cyberattacks against German universities specializing in applied sciences, including the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences impacted by the Vice Society ransomware operation, the Harz University of Applied Sciences, EUFH European University of Applied Sciences, Ruhr West University, and the University of Duisburg-Essen. The University of Zurich in Switzerland has also been hit by a recent cyberattack.