The Artesis-Plantijn college in Antwerp had to close its doors after a cyberattack on Wednesday. The students were forced to attend their classes online.

On Wednesday night – 29-30 September – the attackers were able to hack computers, servers and website. The aim was to collect as much personal information as possible. The people behind the attack are unknown. Luckily the IT-team of the school was working at the moment of the attack. They were able to limit the damage that was done by the hackers. Nevertheless, the school was forced to close its doors so that students and staff could not do any more harm to the system.

Due to the cyberattack, students are not able to enrol at the school. AP is also not able to process adjustments to a certain program or exemptions. In case students, parents or other people still have question, they can still send the school an email. All the information is on their website.

Work from home

The school assured their students that working, studying and attending classes from home is still safe. Certain systems that can cause problems, like E-Campus or other administrative systems, are not available.

The students themselves got informed pretty quickly through Outlook. They all received an email right after the attack happened, saying that they did not have to come to school that day.

Student’s view

‘All classes are given online from that day one’, student Kamal Zriouil says. ‘Of course, there are certain lessons that do not require a computer and can easily be given at school. Because there are still new students joining every week, it was too hard to keep everything organised. For that reason, they decided to just teach all classes online.’

‘We were not told when this will be over. The school did ask us to make sure to keep an eye on our email for all updates. I miss interacting with the teachers and fellow students though. I am also much more focused in class than online’, Kamal adds.

Text: Claire Gevers, photos: ©Pinterest