The disruption occurred after an unauthorized party tried to hack into the private university in Montrose's servers, Interim President Dempsey Rosales Acosta said in a Wednesday email to students and employees. The university has not found any indication that university information was compromised, but IT teams quarantined the affected servers "out of an abundance of caution," he said.
The new semester begins Monday.
"We are diligently investigating the issue and are actively working to restore services as quickly as possible," Rosales Acosta said in the email on Wednesday. "We understand the challenges this outage may present and appreciate your adaptability. Our priority at this time is to ensure the safety and security of all university and personal data."
Online security has become a pressing concern for colleges and universities across the country, with ransomware attacks becoming more and more common after Covid-19 overhauled the remote functioning of institutions, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
One of the most recent scares came in May, when a hack of Columbia University's computer system compromised the personal information of about 870,000 people, according to Inside Higher Ed. That information included their contacts, birthdays, demographics, academic history, health information, insurance details, financial aid information and Social Security numbers, the outlet reported.
Details about the attempted hack at St. Thomas were not immediately available. The private Catholic university had an enrollment of 4,350 students in fall 2024. Students are preparing for the fall 2025 semester this week, including with freshman move-in.
Alma Vazquez, a University of St. Thomas graduate student, said she is most anxious that she can't confirm that her financial aid is available before courses begin.
The website and its log-on system has been inaccessible for four days, and she said she has had trouble reaching the university by phone.
"Am I enrolled in these courses?" Vazquez said. "With the system being down, what happens with financial aid?"
The Houston Chronicle has reached out to the University of St. Thomas for comment, but they have not yet responded.
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