Network Security, Threat Management

Rutgers, once again, victimized by a cyberattack

Rutgers University underwent its sixth cyberattack in just over one year last week when its computer system was hit with a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack causing a four-day-long service disruption for one of its networks.

The DDoS attack began early on December 24 with an intermittent strike at the school site sakai.rutgers.edu. with full service being restored by December 28, according to the Rutgers' Office of Information Technology Facebook page. Sakai is an open source Learning Management System used by the school's staff.

“OIT worked with our provider on mitigation and has advised law enforcement of the attack. Users may experience difficulty accessing Sakai until the problem is resolved,” OIT stated via Facebook on the day of the initial attack.

Rutgers has taken steps to help mitigate its vulnerability including setting aside several million dollars, paid for through a tuition hike, to hire three cybersecurity firms and beef up its own defenses.

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