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University of New Orleans Cyber Threat Has Been 'Negated'

UNO confirmed Monday that several services had been restored, and others will be brought back online incrementally while state authorities investigate the intrusion and whether anyone's personal data was compromised.

University of New Orleans.jpg
Photo credit: University of New Orleans Facebook page
(TNS) — After five Louisiana universities detected an "indicator of compromise" to their computer systems late last week, the University of New Orleans said on Sunday evening that the threat to its system has been "successfully negated."

On Monday morning UNO confirmed that several campus systems including guest Wi-Fi, campus email, Moodle and Zoom had been restored. In a post on Twitter Sunday night, the university said secure campus Wi-Fi, Internet, Workday, PeopleSoft and other services were offline.

Law enforcement agencies including the Louisiana State Police and the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness have continued to investigate the threat and UNO said anyone whose personal data was compromised would be notified as quickly as possible.

In a statement, UNO president John Nicklow said he was "encouraged by the progress" the university's IT team and cybersecurity staff from the governor's office had made in restoring campus systems.

"I want our campus community to know that this is a complex process in which we are incrementally bringing services back online as safely and quickly as possible," he said. "In particular, I want our students to know that we will work to support them through this disruption. We appreciate their patience."

On Friday evening, university officials said UNO and four other schools, River Parishes Community College, which has campuses in Gonzales, Reserve, Boutte and Plaquemine, Southern University at Shreveport, LSU Agricultural Center and Nunez Community College in Chalmette, were impacted by a cybersecurity threat of some sort.

UNO said it had "detected an indicator of compromise" and had to bring Internet systems offline to implement security features.

This is a developing story, please check back with NOLA.com for more.

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