NJ.com – Federal law enforcement is helping to find the source of the weekend cyber attack that crippled Rutgers University internet service, a university spokesman confirmed Monday.
“Rutgers is working with the FBI to investigate the incident,” spokesman E.J. Miranda said in an email to NJ Advance Media.
Miranda added that the university’s Office of Information Technology continues to work to fully restore internet service.
Sakai, a learning resource management tool used by students, is operational but not available off-campus, Miranda added.
Officials reported Sunday that the Rutgers computer network was hit with a denial of service attack that began on Friday, March 27, slowing internet service down to a crawl.
A denial of service occurs when a user directs other computers on their network to contact a specific computer server or website. The flood of traffic can slow internet service, and sometimes cause it to shut down completely.
Investigators have not found that confidential information has been compromised, Miranda said.
A separate cyber attack against Fairleigh Dickinson University occurred Sunday, shutting down internet service at the Teaneck and Florsham Park campuses, said university spokeswoman Dina Schipper on Monday.
According to the email, university officials worked with “multiple external parties” to identify the cause of the slowdown and restore service.
Schipper could not immediately say whether those parties included law enforcement, or whether university officials had identified the source of the attack.
