MTU to close Cork campuses until next week following cyberattack

Vivienne Clarke

A breach of Munster Technological University's IT systems over the weekend was caused by a ransomware attack, MTU's vice-president for finance and administration Paul Gallagher has confirmed.

Mr Gallagher added that MTU's campuses in Cork will remain closed until Monday when there will be a “phased and managed” return to campus.

“The worst thing we can do is rush this, that could make matters worse,” he told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.

Mr Gallagher declined to comment on the ransom amount demanded but acknowledged a demand had been found encoded in one of the servers.

“We have not engaged, we are taking advice from the National Cyber Security Centre. We’re in a strong position, we can restore the system ourselves,” he explained.

“The difficulty is actually getting into the system because the first thing that is attacked is your security and your network management system, and it is encrypted in those systems. So it took us some time to get those back and to understand the full extent of the attack.

“We were very lucky in that we intercepted this at an early stage, which puts us in quite a strong position, actually.”

Mr Gallagher added: “Right now, we have protocols in place and we're following those through a strict methodology. The danger is that if you rush it, you make things worse, so we have our plans in place.”