Oxford University’s History Faculty has experienced “unauthorised access” to its IT system. In response, several systems have been isolated and the IT staff is building a new server. There is no evidence so far that any data has been removed.
Administrative staff worked from home, and the faculty warned that some sources of information “remain inaccessible” for a few days. An undergraduate history student told Cherwell that they could not connect to eduroam in the History Faculty and instead used mobile data. A tutor also attributed delays in the selection of papers to the IT outage.
Department Chair Martin Conway told Cherwell: “The main consequence is that some of the administrative staff have been working off-site with remote access, which is good practice in these circumstances. Teaching and seminars in the Faculty are continuing as normal (with Eduroam access in the Faculty Building). We do not therefore expect there to be any consequences for undergraduates or for our research students.”
The extent of the breach continues to be investigated by the IT team, and its full scale has not yet been determined. The incident has been reported to the Information Commissioner’s office and other appropriate authorities. The faculty also warned students against this risk in their email, stating that if students are contacted by anyone who claims to have access to personal data or information, they should immediately contact the University’s IT services.
A University spokesperson told Cherwell: “The extent of this access continues to be investigated, but, so far, there is no evidence that any data has been removed, or of wider access to other University systems.”
