Taking security precautions, the Inholland and Fontys universities of applied sciences, Leiden University and the Free University (VU) closed access to their system for remote workers on Friday. The cause was a security breach. The breach was first discovered in mid-December but the National Cyber Security Centre only advised organisations on Friday to turn off their Citrix servers. This is a precautionary measure to prevent people with malicious intentions to enter and take over the network at a distance. If this would happen, the organisations could be the victims of data leaks or ransomware, as recently happened to the University of Maastricht.
Patch
Exactly how many academic institutions are facing a security breach is unknown. In any case, TU Delft is not one of them. Rob van Laar, IT Manager at TU Delft answered questions in writing explaining that TU Delft uses a different version of Citrix than those that are now experiencing problems. “Apart from that, we have taken additional actions to prevent and detect abuse. We have also taken the latest security steps and installed the patch to seal the potential breach.” Just as well given how intensively Citrix is used. Van Laar estimates the number of unique users at TU Delft at 1,000 to 2,000 every day.
Evelien Flink (HOP), Saskia Bonger (Delta)
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