Cyberattack shut down IT systems at South East Technological University

South East Technological University detected a cybersecurity incident affecting its Waterford campuses on Friday, November 1, 2024. The Irish university shut down systems in response, leaving staff and students without campus internet access, internal email on the wit.ie domain, file sharing, on-campus access to the Moodle learning platform and other campus ICT equipment.

SETU postponed classes at the Waterford campuses on Monday, November 4 to give lecturers time to rework teaching plans around the outage. Classes resumed on Tuesday, November 5, but the university warned that access to some services would remain limited. Apprenticeship classes and teaching at SETU's other locations were not affected.

The university's internal IT team worked with external cybersecurity specialists on containment and recovery. Vice-president David Denieffe told staff that investigations to that point had found no evidence that data or information had been compromised. The Teachers' Union of Ireland warned members that the Waterford network could stay offline for the rest of the week, and RTE reported that the full extent of the incident might not be clear until then.

SETU did not publicly describe the nature of the attack or name anyone responsible in its initial statements, and it gave no indication at that stage that student or staff records had been taken.