Cyberattack Forces UT San Antonio to Delay Fall Semester Start

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Cyberattack forces UT San Antonio to delay start of fall semester

Incident Overview

The University of Texas at San Antonio postponed the fall semester’s commencement by three days following a cyber intrusion targeting its academic infrastructure over the weekend. Academic sessions originally scheduled to commence on Wednesday, August 19, will now begin on Monday, August 24. The institution, which enrolls over 42,000 students, reported that the unauthorized access attempt was detected at the network perimeter before reaching critical systems.

University Response

University Technology Solutions (UTS) collaborated with external cybersecurity experts to mitigate the threat. Initial investigations conducted by senior leadership confirmed no evidence of data exfiltration. A joint statement from Andrea Marks, Senior Executive Vice President of Enterprise Operations and Strategy, and Michael Schnabel, CTO, emphasized the effectiveness of the response without disclosing specifics about the attack vector or potential perpetrators.

To address the incident, the university temporarily suspended certain systems and services to conduct network assessments and strengthen protective measures. This action disrupted operations for students, faculty, and staff, including outages in the university’s telecommunication system and delays in password recovery processes.

Impact on Operations

President Taylor Eighmy stated the decision prioritized ensuring the reliability of essential systems as the semester begins. “Postponing classes to Monday allows our teams sufficient time to restore services methodically and establish a secure foundation for the academic term,” Eighmy explained. The university reiterated its proactive measures to address the unauthorized activity, citing caution as the rationale for disabling systems to evaluate and reinforce security protocols before resuming operations.

Context of Previous Breach

This incident follows a recent large-scale breach of Instructure’s Canvas platform, which occurred during final exams in the spring and compromised data linked to millions of users globally.