Another Denial Of Service Attack Interrupts Internet Service At Rutgers University

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Internet service at Rutgers University was interrupted by another cyberattack Monday.

As CBS2's Matt Kozar reported, Rutgers students on Monday were ditching the library to hang outside – but not only because of the warm weather.

"You can't do any of your work," said senior Gabrielle Alvarez.

Alvarez could not access her course materials, campus wi-fi, or email because the university network was down.

Rutgers Chief Information Officer Don Smith said in a message to the Rutgers community Monday that the cyberattack lasted from 10 a.m. until mid-afternoon. Network connectivity has been stabilized, but intermittent service problems may continue through the evening, Smith said.

A denial of service event, as Rutgers experienced, involves slowing down or paralyzing a network.

This is at least the fifth attack on Rutgers University's network in the last year. Similar attacks in May and August made the network inaccessible.

"That ruined a lot of things last semester," said Rutgers student Kevin Couch. "I think I had an exam that that actually had to get dropped because it got pushed so far back, and we kept having Internet problems, and eventually, they decided to get rid of it."

After the August attack, the university hired three cybersecurity firms to help protect its computer networks. At the time, school officials said the firms would be tasked with testing the university's network for vulnerabilities and other work that officials said they could not discuss for security reasons.

But the enhancements were not enough to stop the attack on Monday.

"Today's attack… was disruptive and annoying," Smith wrote. "We apologize for any inconvenience."

Now with midterms coming up, many students were frustrated with the latest security breach.

Chrissy Riley said she could not log onto Sakai, an online hub were she downloads notes and prepares for tests.

She said without access to Sakai, "we can't do our work."

Students were hoping the school would fix the problems before the big exams.

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