Education

UM begins first day of classes without internet, network connections

Michigan Public | By Michigan Radio Newsroom

Published August 28, 2023 at 12:37 PM EDT

Updated August 29, 2023 at 11:47 AM EDT

The University of Michigan students walk through the Diag in Ann Arbor.

Updated: August 29, 2023 at 11:15 AM EDT

The University of Michigan says it was the victim of a cyberattack.

The attack required the U of M Information and Technology services to disconnect all three campuses from the internet on Sunday.

The internet and WI-FI at the U of M's three campuses still isn’t working, and it may be days before all service is completely restored.

The attack may have compromised the security of some system administrator accounts, which have to have their passwords reset.

Updated: August 29, 2023 at 7:35 AM

Students begin their second day of classes without internet and WI-FI on campus. Cloud based services like Google, Canvas, Zoom and Slack are working if accessed by off-campus WI-FI or a cellular network. The University of Michigan Information and Technology Services says it may be "several days" before everything is back to normal.

Updated: August 28, 2023 at 3:06 PM

According to a an update released by the University of Michigan's Information and Technology Services, a "significant security concern" forced them to disconnect from the Internet on Sunday in order to address the issue.

"We took this action to provide our information technology teams the space required to address the issue in the safest possible manner," the statement read.

The Internet outage has not impacted any patient care at Michigan Medicine.

It has been confusing for students looking for class schedules and locations, communicating with professors, or trying to complete class assignments.

Federal law enforcement is involved to investigate what may have gone wrong.

The statement from ITS noted that "students will not incur late registration or disenrollment fees through the month of August." Additionally, "while many students received an initial disbursement of financial aid funds, financial aid refunds may be delayed due to the system outage."

Additional updates can be found on umich.edu and on @umichtech on X/Twitter.

ORIGINAL STORY

The University of Michigan and its three campuses in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint have not had internet connections since early Sunday afternoon.

Classes at U of M begin today on all three campuses, but some students may have had trouble finding the classroom if they need to check the schedule online, and they may have trouble emailing the professors to let them know. U of M ITS did get schedule pages working for students to check on classes, but Internet access still remains down.

The outage began at 1:45 on Sunday afternoon. The university's Information and Technology Services has not given a reason for connectivity failure, but has been working around the clock to restore service. The issue has shut down the U of M WiFi network, Google Workspace, and Wolverine Access.

In an update posted to Twitter (X) on Monday morning, U of M ITS said it made the "difficult decision" to separate the U of M network to "help mitigate technical issues."

We apologize for the ongoing disruption. On Sunday, the difficult decision was made to separate the U-M network from the internet to help mitigate technical issues. It was not made lightly, particularly given the timing with the first day of classes. Classes are meeting. (1/2)
— UMich ITS (@umichTECH) August 28, 2023

In the same social post, ITS indicated they hoped to have the issue resolved by Monday afternoon.

As of the time of reporting, no messages were communicated from U of M President Santa J. Ono, something many noted in response to the Twitter updates.

@SantaJOno @UMichPrezOno classes should be canceled. This is ridiculous.
— Shamma 💙💛 (@siddiqi74) August 28, 2023

Others pointed to lack of information being provided for something that was so widespread.

It is a little hard to see how the total absence of internet services helps mitigate technical issues. It IS a technical issue. Less gaslighting more explanation please
— Dr. Michigan Christie (profclbrown at skyplace) (@profclbrown) August 28, 2023

@SantaJOno @UMichPrezOno must send message to all UM this evening so that instructors not blamed for being less than fully prepared.

More important, students need to know they will *not* be judged for not having done any reading assigned for tomorrow.
— Dr. Pamela Smock (@PamelaSmock1) August 27, 2023

Editor's note: The University of Michigan holds Michigan Radio's license.