On Sunday, the TU/e website – followed by national and international news media – reported on the cyber-attack on TU/e. Text messages were sent to staff members and the message was also broadcast in MetaForum on Sunday. Anyone present on campus this Monday has a good reason to be there.

On the ground floor of MetaForum, Finn Ruijters is sitting behind his laptop. He is waiting for an appointment with his thesis supervisor from Systems and Control. Students cannot currently access their course materials, but that is no problem for Ruijters today. “I still have access to Matlab and I have 5G on my phone if I need the internet. I actually enjoy how quiet it is here but I hope it doesn’t stay like this for too long.”

Timo Beune, a Mechanical Engineering student, agrees. He is on his way to see his thesis supervisor, but he is not entirely sure about the time of his appointment. “I can’t open my calendar because I use the Outlook calendar linked to my TU/e account. Once this hack is resolved, I’ll definitely link it to my personal account. That’s today’s lesson for me.”

Ilja van Oort is an Education Research Officer at Electrical Engineering. He came to campus because he can manage just fine without the internet today. “My work usually involves programming, but today I’m going to read professional literature that’s available either offline or on paper.” 

Caring

On Monday morning, lecturer Erik Steur (Mechanical Engineering) has some concerns about five hundred first-year students taking a dynamics course. “They were supposed to come in today to ask questions about lectures from previous weeks. They use assignments and a textbook for this. I was wondering if the message not to come to campus has reached everyone. I stopped by all five classrooms and found seven student assistants and two students. Since it’s technically possible to work without access to the internet, they decided to come in anyway. So I’ve grouped one student assistant and the two students who want to prepare for the exams next week together in Matrix. The other six have gone home.” He also has a plan for when the crisis is over. “I’m going to create WhatsApp groups with my fifteen student assistants so that I can reach them through other channels outside the TU/e systems.”

LIS

As early as 8:00 this morning, LIS staff member Joyce Maas was updating fifty colleagues and student assistants on the situation. “It’s great to see that so many student assistants are eager to help. We exchanged phone numbers and ensured that there are people present at every building on campus to share what little information is available at the moment and, most importantly, to collect questions.” For now, there is little panic, asserts LIS communications advisor Jochem van Hattum.