Aurora College Halts Classes Following Holiday Cyber Attack
Aurora College in Canada’s Northwest Territories has suspended in-person and online classes for the week of January 5–9 after falling victim to a cyber attack during the Christmas break. The college announced the disruption late Sunday, just one day before students were set to return from the holidays.
The attack has taken down critical systems, including servers, e-learning platforms, email, the self-service portal, and the student application portal. While recovery efforts are underway—focused on purging malicious code and restoring operations—no evidence of a data breach or ransomware has been detected so far. The college’s website and social media channels remain operational for updates.
Students have raised concerns about tuition payments, dormitory access, and financial aid processing, as the outage disrupts enrollment confirmations. In response, the college stated it is working to establish alternate systems and will coordinate with the territorial government to minimize disruptions to student financial assistance.
Despite the suspension, faculty and staff will remain available on-site, offering support by phone or in person throughout the week. The college has apologized for the late notice and inconvenience caused by the incident.
Source: https://cabinradio.ca/273959/news/education/aurora-college-suspends-classes-over-cyber-attack/
Aurora College cybersecurity rating report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/aurora-college-nt
"id": "AUR1768123564",
"linkid": "aurora-college-nt",
"type": "Cyber Attack",
"date": "1/2026",
"severity": "100",
"impact": "5",
"explanation": "Attack threatening the organization's existence"{'affected_entities': [{'customers_affected': 'Students and faculty',
'industry': 'Education',
'location': 'Northwest Territories, Canada',
'name': 'Aurora College',
'type': 'Educational Institution'}],
'customer_advisories': 'Students instructed to monitor the college’s website '
'and social media for updates',
'data_breach': {'data_exfiltration': 'No evidence detected'},
'date_detected': '2023-12-25',
'date_publicly_disclosed': '2024-01-04',
'description': 'Aurora College suspended classes for at least a week after a '
'cyber attack over the holidays. In-person and online classes '
'were suspended for the week of January 5-9 due to the attack, '
'which affected servers, e-learning platforms, email, '
'self-service portal, and student application portal.',
'impact': {'customer_complaints': 'Concerns about tuition payments, dorm '
'moves, and financial assistance',
'data_compromised': 'No evidence of a data breach detected',
'downtime': 'At least one week (January 5-9)',
'operational_impact': 'Class cancellations, disruption to student '
'services and financial assistance processes',
'systems_affected': ['servers',
'e-learning platforms',
'email',
'self-service portal',
'student application portal']},
'investigation_status': 'Ongoing',
'ransomware': {'data_encryption': 'No evidence detected',
'data_exfiltration': 'No evidence detected'},
'references': [{'date_accessed': '2024-01-04',
'source': 'Aurora College News Release'},
{'date_accessed': '2024-01-04',
'source': 'Aurora College Facebook Post'}],
'response': {'communication_strategy': 'Monitoring website and social media '
'channels for updates, direct '
'responses to student queries on '
'Facebook',
'containment_measures': 'Purging malicious code',
'recovery_measures': 'Setting up alternate systems, hoping to '
'restore existing systems within a few days',
'remediation_measures': 'Working towards system recovery'},
'stakeholder_advisories': 'Faculty and staff on site to assist students by '
'phone or in-person',
'title': 'Cyber Attack on Aurora College',
'type': 'Cyber Attack'}