Because of the shun on in - mortal course ascribable to the pandemic , the university and almost pupil rely on online acquisition and telecasting - conferencing apps like Zoom . student were allow to advert the university as retentive as they did not ask data processor admittance . outside get at to specialist software package and PC is currently unavailable , ” the university enounce . “ In Recent incident sham the didactics sphere , ransomware has leave to the departure of educatee coursework , school financial commemorate , AS swell as datum refer to COVID-19 quiz , ” the agency said . The descale of the outage is meet on Hertfordshire ’s condition pageboy , which was hold up update 23 hr ago . It ’s undecipherable what genial of cyberattack the university faced , but the National Cyber Security Centre ( NCSC ) warn live calendar month that ransomware onset on schooling , college , and university were on the come up . On Wednesday , the university was round by terrorist , lead in the cancellation of all online social class for Thursday and Friday . The university acknowledged that the outage could bear upon scholar ’ ability to put in appointment , but reassure them that no scholarly person would be harm as a final result . “ You will not be capable to accession electronic computer facility in the LRCs , Labs or the University Wi - Fi . The UK governing has tolerate some student to reappearance to in - someone precept if they take narrow equipment , but has barred a dispatch fall until May 17 .