Cyberattack and extended semester leaves students stressed and scared: students' association president

Students at the University of Winnipeg are scared and stressed after services were shut down and their semester was extended following a recent cyberattack on the school, the president of the association that represents them says.

The university announced last week that its exam schedule was being pushed back by one week after classes were temporarily cancelled due to a cyberattack on the school's systems. The exam period scheduled for April 11 now runs April 18 to May 2, the school said.

But Tomiris Kaliyeva, president of the University of Winnipeg Students'​ Association, said she's been getting lots of complaints from students over the past week about not being able to submit or complete their assignments or about stress over the exam delay.

"I think everyone's right now just scrambling and understanding what to do and how to navigate around the next couple of weeks," she told CBC News on Saturday.

The university has been able to restore students' access to their email, Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft software, a March 29 update on the school's website says — a relief for students wanting to communicate with their professors. 

But they still can't log in to Nexus, the school's learning management system that houses much of students' course content, or its online library, said Kaliyeva.

WebAdvisor, an online hub that contains students' registration, tuition and other course information, also remains inaccessible.

"People are scared that their personal information will be leaked. People are scared that they won't be able to get home on time or start their internship sometime. People are scared that they won't be able to do their exams on time ... because Nexus or the library won't be up on time," she said.

"At this point, it's just a waiting game."

The University of Winnipeg's president and vice-chancellor Todd Mondor said Wednesday that the university is not aware of any loss of personal information. 

Kaliyeva said the association will be working with students to support them if needed.

Campus housing extended

The university said late Saturday night that the move-out date for students living in dorms on campus has also been extended.

Students now have until May 3 — instead of April 26 — to leave.

This is a relief for student Keelyn L'Hereux, who's from the Morden-Winkler area.

"That's wonderful news that puts me a lot at ease for housing. I don't have to figure out new plans if I have to stay here longer," she said.

But, she noted, for students who already had moving-out plans, the news doesn't help much.

"Some people still have nonrefundable plane tickets, so for those people in exams and such, this won't help them whatsoever," said L'Hereux.

Kaliyeva said a lot of international students had flights booked already.

School administration said last week a "threat actor" managed to gain entrance to its system, and that the university took its network down to protect its data. The incident was reported to Winnipeg police and the RCMP, the university said.

Kaliyeva said she thinks the university has handled the situation well and hopes that it keeps being transparent with its students.

Students are expected to get more information from the university during a virtual town hall on Monday.