Every now and then a fly enters the web. Suddenly, an issue has popped up and administrators rush to the disruption to fix things. I bet every employee can give an example from their own environment, with Beethoven being the latest one. Talk about a big fat fly flying into the middle of the web.

Until last weekend, when the web disappeared overnight. Hacked.

And there we were on Monday morning. Many students and colleagues could still access their email and Teams, but some couldn't. Canvas was still accessible for some, but not for most, and the same applied to all kinds of systems that operate on SurfContext, such as Osiris. Meanwhile, the media informed us that we might as well stay home, because it’s impossible to teach without using the internet.

I got amused messages from friends: “I thought you guys used chalk?” and my colleague Mitchel Brunings called the situation reverse COVID: instead of getting online as soon as possible, we have to get offline as soon as possible. There was also good news, because although nothing was working anymore, there was coffee! A basic necessity for scientists, right?

Through word of mouth we were advised to communicate through other channels (use Signal, not WhatsApp, so you don't have to share your private phone number with colleagues and Facebook can’t eavesdrop). And we were also informed that exams have been postponed for a week because students can no longer access course material and teachers are unable to print exams.

Due to the complexity of TU/e, the hack also has consequences far beyond our campus. Data-Science education, for example, is partly provided at and with Tilburg University. This means that university also has to adjust its planning (and a pesky side effect is that their planning tool is on scheduled downtime for two weeks). Colleagues who are abroad don’t have Eduroam and any extension to the academic year can put considerable pressure on the itineraries and schedules of teachers and students.

And yet, we’re managing. The web may be gone for a while, but the resilience is still there.