Library cyberattack leaves no student or employee data compromised

A cyberattack on University of New Mexico Libraries that began on July 31 resulted in no compromised data for students or employees, according to Mark Emmons, associate dean of the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences. Publicly accessible resources were mostly available by the start of the semester, according to Emmons, while issues accessing library resources from off campus continued.

As of Sept. 6, initial testing indicated UNM may have resolved the off-campus access issues, Emmons wrote in an email to the Daily Lobo.

When members of UNM leadership initially learned of the cyberattack, they determined that the best course of action was to take down the parts of the network associated with UNM Libraries, according to Emmons. On Aug. 1, UNM sent out a campus-wide email stating UNM Libraries’ online services were unavailable and facilities were closed because of emergency network maintenance.

On Aug. 15, another campus-wide email informed the community that the Library and University IT teams restored full access to library services.

Higher education and libraries are frequent targets of cyberattacks, according to Emmons. Typically, individual attackers and motives remain unknown.

“Students and all other members of the UNM community must be engaged to promote awareness of information security principles to help safeguard our environment,” Emmons wrote.

Lily Alexander is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or on X @llilyalexander