Okanagan College warns of potential privacy breach after cyber attack

Nearly 16,000 students and 1,200 staff at Okanagan College are still unable to access campus network services after a cyber attack earlier this week.

In a written statement Wednesday, college president Neil Fassina said the institution's information technology services team uncovered a cyber security attack on Monday at around 6:15 a.m. while conducting routine surveillance.

Fassina said the attack, launched by an "unrecognized external agent," had forced the IT services team to shut down and disable network access across all of Okanagan College's campuses in Kelowna, Vernon, Penticton and Salmon Arm.

He said the team is investigating the incident with the help of outside cybersecurity experts, but campus network services had not been restored as of Wednesday morning.

"The outage has impacted our public website and learning management site Moodle. It has impacted our ability to send user emails to our students and staff."

Network downtime uncertain

Fassina said the college is working hard to restore secure access to campus network services as soon as possible but couldn't say how long the system would be down.

"As much as I'd love to be able to say it's got a definitive timeline on it, that is not something I can provide at this time," he said on CBC's Radio West.

He said it is also trying to determine whether personal information was compromised.

In the meantime, the college is advising students and staff to take these measures to protect themselves from identity theft and fraud:

• Remain vigilant to unusual emails or text messages that claim to be from the Okanagan College and unexpectedly ask for personal information.
• Avoid sending personal information unless confident the communication is authentic.
• Avoid responding to unsolicited requests for financial information.
• Be aware of unauthorized transactions related to an individual's financial accounts.