Queensland University of Technology hit by Royal ransomware attack

A major Queensland university has been hit by a cyber attack just days after first round offers were sent to prospective students.

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Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has been hit by a Royal Ransomware cyber attack just days after first round offers were sent to students.

All IT systems have been taken offline as a precaution and the university believes no student or staff data has been compromised.

“QUT has experienced a cybersecurity incident today which purports to be a Royal ransomware attack ... Technical staff are currently investigating and QUT has notified the relevant agencies of the situation.” a statement from the uni said.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has been hit by a cyber attack.

A QUT spokeswoman said the incident was identified this morning by a staff member, with a number of systems taken offline immediately.

“We are still assessing how long the systems will be down as a precaution,” she said.

“No students sent offers are affected by the outage. If they accept their offer with QTAC we have a process in place to record that.

“Future offer rounds are in the new year and we don’t anticipate they will be affected.

“At this stage, our assessment is that no student or staff data has been compromised.

This includes prospective students.”

The major Queensland university is the latest to fall victim to a series of cyber attacks targeting Australian businesses and organisations.

‘Royal Ransomware’ is a prominent hacking group that has been launching cyber attacks on large businesses and organisations around the globe in the last few months.

If data is stolen it is usually leaked and sold on the dark web.