NEW BRUNSWICK – A cyber attack against the Rutgers University computer network is responsible for ongoing interruptions in internet service, school officials said Tuesday.
In a 9 a.m. update posted to the Facebook account of the Rutgers Office of Information and Technology (OIT), officials said the service outages were related to a distributed denial of service attack. “OIT staff are continuing to work on restoring services.,” the message said.
A denial of service occurs when a user directs other computers on their network to repeatedly contact a specific computer server or website. The traffic can slow internet service, and sometimes cause it to shut down completely.
Via social media, Rutgers students have since Monday reported periodic outages in wi-fi service, email and Sakai, a resource tool used by both faculty and students.
“We are working hard to correct the problem,” said university spokesman Steve Manas. Asked for additional details of the attacks, which services were affected and whether there had been any breach of confidential information during the attacks, Manas said that he did not currently have the information and referred NJ Advance Media to the latest OIT statement.
A previous denial of service attack in March crippled internet-based services at both Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University.
In the wake of the March attack, university officials began working with federal law enforcement officials to find the source of the attack.
“Rutgers is working with the FBI to investigate the incident,” spokesman E.J. Miranda said via email.