02 September 2020

Students at Northumbria University received letters from the deputy vice-chancellor informing them there had been a "cyber incident" and an investigation has been launched.

Professor Peter Francis explained that a group of external specialists had launched an investigation into the incident and took "immediate action in order to mitigate the impact".

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Northumbria Police and other regulatory bodies were also informed of the attack.

"The investigation is still at an early stage and we are working to recover the university’s systems and services as safely as possible in order to minimise the impact on you all," said Francis. "We take the security of our system extremely seriously, and were able to respond quickly to this incident."

Student access to the campus has since been limited as the university works on restoring its network and connected services.

It is understood that the attack took place in the last week.