BADC Webserver compromised

During the weekend the main webserver at the BADC was subjected to an attack from an external source and an intruder was able to gain access to the server. We have removed this server from operation while it is returned to a secure state and investigations to the extent of the hack are carried out.

As a consequence the BADC website and those services reliant on the web-server in question will be unavailable while these corrective measures are put into place.

At present it is unclear to the extent of the intrusion over the weekend and our staff are already examining logs to ascertain if any personal login details were recovered from our systems. As a precautionary step, regardless of the encrypted nature of our password storage, we will reset all user passwords and issue emails with replacement passwords as soon as possible.

We apologise for the inconvenience this event has caused and we hope to return full service as soon as possible.

In the meanwhile, should you have any questions or require assistance please feel free to contact the BADC helpdesk on badc@rl.ac.uk or 01235 446432.

Regards,

BADC/NEODC team 13 September 2011