Cyberattack leaves UAB without internet and forces suspension of classes

BarcelonaA computer attack has left the internal services of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) without service this Monday and has forced the suspension of classes, at least in the Communication Faculty. According to UAB sources, this could be a ransom attack: cybercriminals restrict access to files on the infected system and request a ransom in order to make them accessible again.

The impact on the computer services of the UAB is "general": there is no internet connection on campus, no wifi network and neither students nor teachers can connect from their computers to the Virtual Campus. The internal email and website are not working either. Right now the UAB can only communicate with its users through social networks, through which they have recommended disconnecting all devices linked to the UAB, including through the cloud, in order to prevent the infection from spreading. In addition, they ask that any user having received a file called http://Readme.READ and having saved it on their desktop, as well as any file with a .uab extension, turn off the computer and notify the IT service.

In view of the attack, and as the university portals are not working and access to the network has been cancelled, the Faculty of Communication has had to cancel all its classes because neither the hardware nor the software can be made to work.