Universities caught up in global IT outage

Some universities have reported being affected by the IT outage affecting organisations globally, while others appear to have escaped unscathed.

Windows computers around the world reportedly shut down because of what cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike described as a “defect” in one of its software updates, forcing the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights and also affecting banking, healthcare and shops.

In the UK, institutions including the universities of Manchester and East Anglia, plus Oxford Brookes, Lancaster and Aston universities, reported being affected in social media posts.

Manchester’s IT services department posted on X that it was “aware of an issue affecting access to some university IT services”. UEA said that a “global IT issue” was “affecting payment services and tills across systems on campus, as well as the IT service desk”.

Lancaster’s library said that access to some resources had been disrupted, while Aston’s library said printing was unavailable. Oxford Brookes said some systems were affected.

Other UK universities said that their services were unaffected.

As US universities started their working day, a number reported issues via social media posts.

The University of Kentucky said that it was “experiencing some disruptions”, including in its hospitals, while the University of Dayton said that its IT systems were down. Texas A&M University said its website had been affected.

In social media posts, some academics suggested that the global outage underlined the risks of universities becoming too dependant on a small number of providers for critical IT systems.

Some institutions were able to strike a lighter note, however, with Keele University posting that it could “confirm that the IT outage has not been caused by squirrels nibbling through the main ‘internet wire’”.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com