NWO hack followed by cyberattack on Amsterdam’s UvA and HvA

On Sunday, it became clear that the IT systems of the Dutch Research Council had been hacked. On Wednesday, it was the turn of two higher education institutions in Amsterdam.

‘Unknown third parties’ have unlawfully accessed the IT environments of Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) and the University of Amsterdam (UvA). So far, the universities have not released any detailed information about the scope or background of these cyberattacks.

HvA and UvA are currently investigating which parts of the IT environment have been breached. They will be temporarily shutting down part of their systems to limit the impact of the attacks and minimise the disruption of their education and research activities.

Over the weekend, criminals also targeted the Dutch Research Council (NWO). In response, the research funding agency has taken its entire network offline until further notice. A year ago, criminals had hacked Maastricht University’s IT systems. To regain access to its servers, the university ultimately decided to fork out nearly 200,000 euros in ransom money.