Cyberattack shuts down 4 Quebec CEGEPs, cancelling classes and exams
A cyberattack has led to the suspension of classes and the cancellation of exams at four Cégep de Lanaudière locations, affecting 7,000 students.
Classes were suspended at the end of last week following an attack that targeted the college network's servers, depriving the four schools of Omnivox, the main digital platform used by staff and students.
The exact nature of this cyberattack has not been disclosed. But various images, sometimes pornographic, were showing up on the Omnivox site when students logged into their accounts.
Classes are expected to stay suspended through the rest of this week at the Lanaudière, L'Assomption, Joliette and Formation Continue CEGEPs.
In a communication addressed to students and staff last Sunday, management explained that they were forced to suspend classes at least until Tuesday to allow a cybersecurity firm to investigate the origin of the attack and to patch the breach, if possible.
"The investigation is still ongoing. At the moment, data leakage is not suspected by experts," said Marilyn Sansregret, spokesperson for Cégep régional de Lanaudière.
Then on Tuesday evening, students learned that classes remained suspended until at least Friday.
Sansregret said the IT department is working diligently to strengthen and secure computer systems, but it is still too early to resume normal activities.
"The management, which hopes for a return to classes on May 13, promises a new update on Sunday evening," she said.
Colleges and universities are regularly targeted by cyberattacks. In spring 2022, Collège Montmorency in Laval had to suspend its classes following a data breach in its computer systems. That data was subsequently published on the dark web.
Cégep de Saint-Félicien was also attacked in September 2020, as was Cégep de Jonquière in June 2021.
The Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and Cégep de Trois-Rivières also had to suspend their computer activities in December 2021 due to security flaws.
Also in December 2021, the province had to close nearly 4,000 government web pages due to a vulnerability that would allow access without authentication.
