Munster Technological University wins temporary injunction over ransomware threat

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Munster Technological University obtained an emergency temporary High Court injunction on 10 February 2023 after a ransomware attack threatened confidential staff and student data.

The court heard that the attack was believed to have been carried out by individuals in the BlackCat ransomware group. The group demanded a significant ransom and threatened to publish information it claimed to have taken from the university’s IT system. The amount was not disclosed.

The order bars the unknown attackers and anyone with knowledge of it from publishing or sharing MTU’s confidential material, and requires the defendants or anyone holding the confidential data to hand it over to MTU. The court heard that the university would not pay a ransom.

Mr Justice Garrett Simons granted the injunction on an ex-parte basis, with only one side present. He also allowed MTU’s lawyers to serve notice of the order through the darknet page where the ransom note was posted. The matter was due to return to court later that month.

Senior counsel Imogen McGrath told the court that the attack had significantly disrupted operations and services to MTU’s 18,000 students. Investigations were continuing into suspicious activity first detected on 5 February 2023, and MTU was concerned that data may have been accessed and extracted.