What happened?
In September 2023, Thomas More Hogeschool, with campuses in Antwerp, Mechelen and the Kempen, was hit by a cyber attack. The attack was a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), temporarily overloading the college's systems. Although the attack caused disruption, no personal data was captured, and the impact on students was limited.
How did it happen?
The DDoS attack was aimed at overloading the servers, making them unreachable. This type of attack is often carried out by external parties who choke the networks with large amounts of data traffic. The exact source of the attack has not been disclosed, but the goal was to disrupt the college's digital operations....
What was the impact for the company?
Although the attack temporarily crippled Thomas More's systems, students and faculty were hardly affected, as the attack was quickly repelled. The college stressed that no data had been leaked and that services could be restored almost immediately. The incident raised concerns about the security of the systems, but major operational damage did not occur.
How could this have been prevented?The use of DDoS mitigation techniques and proactive monitoring can detect and block such attacks before they cause damage. In addition, periodic testing of security systems can help detect vulnerabilities early. Despite the rapid response, it remains important for institutions such as Thomas More to continually strengthen their security measures and prepare for possible future attacks.