We have received reports of successful ransomware attacks on two UK universities that have taken all their IT systems offline and forced one university to close. We would like to remind everyone to remain vigilant and avoid clicking on suspicious links, opening attachments from senders you don’t know, and to keep the operating system updated on your computer and devices. 

If you receive an email from a colleague or team with a link or attachment that you were not expecting, contact them via another means (Zoom or instant message) to check the email is genuine. The University of Essex will never ask you to confirm your password over email,  phone, or anywhere.

If you receive a suspicious email or attachment, report the email by forwarding it as an attachment to phishing@essex.ac.uk. If you have clicked a suspicious link or opened a suspicious attachment, please contact the IT Helpdesk immediately.  

Read our latest blog post on spotting suspicious emails.

Thanks for your cooperation – we really appreciate it.

Resolved 2.45pm

Earlier today we experienced an issue with our email security system which meant that emails from external recipients may have been delayed between 9am and 12.30pm.

We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you at the time.

This issue has since been resolved.

If notice any problems please let the IT Helpdesk know.

Work Complete, 23 February 9am

The planned maintenance work has been completed successfully.

If you notice any issues please let the IT Helpdesk know.

Planned Work

We will be performing scheduled maintenance on the Microsoft Exchange email servers on Tuesday 16 February 2021 from 7.30am to 9.00am

This work will not affect the delivery of email.

We’ll update you here as soon as the work is finished.