Collège Ahuntsic Forced to Suspend Operations After Cyberattack

Montreal, May 16, 2024 – Collège Ahuntsic, one of the largest French-language public colleges in Montreal, has had to shut its operations down due to a cyber-attack it learned about on May 15th, 2024. Such a great reputation compelled the college administration to force closure of all classes and examinations for offering a great variety of pre-university and technical programs; seriously disrupting activities.

Immediate Reaction to the Attack

Following notices of a potential cyberattack, the administration at Collège Ahuntsic shut down all inside IT systems late in the evening on May 15. The situation was also announced to the students and staff through the website and social media of the college. “All regular education and continuing education activities are cancelled,” it said in a post on the college’s Facebook page.

Only vital workers like security, maintenance, and IT had to remain on campus. The extended college community was also requested to stop using college-provided workstations and laptops to stop further compromising the systems.

Recovery and Return to Normalcy

On the evening of May 16, the college announced that on May 17, the campus would reopen because all systems were presently back to normal after the cyberattack alert. An elaborate communication was issued stating what would transpire, mainly rescheduling academic activities-exams that were to take place on May 17 would be moved to later in the week.

Context and Wider Trends

The incident at Collège Ahuntsic is not an isolated one but part of the worrying trend of educational institutions, especially colleges and universities, turning out to be favorite targets of cybercrime. This recent experience is one of the attacks similar to that experienced by the rest of other CEGEPs and universities in Quebec; earlier this month, the Cégep de Lanaudière had to close its doors following a cyberattack.

The cybersecurity experts also point out that attacks continue to worsen in educational services, with universities and colleges being the most susceptible targets because of vast amounts of personal data. According to the Arctic Wolf report, the number of incidents in the educational services sector increased by 258% in 2023 compared to the previous year, while data disclosure increased by 545%, a trend indicative of the acuteness of such a threat.

Lessons and Ways Forward Collège Ahuntsic has always been conscious of the best practice in cybersecurity which it regularly thwarts, but this incident underlines an ever-increased need for robust defenses. The college has sensitized its community on best practices in cybersecurity, listed on its official website, ongoing.

This is not the first, and probably won’t be the last, cyberattack of its kind. Though it recovered pretty fast, it just goes to show how vulnerable academic institutions are to cyber threats. With expanding digital learning environments, so too will cybersecurity need to grow to protect students, faculty, and institutional data from similar threats in the future.