Cyber incident - Daily round-up

Data accessed  

We now understand some more about the data that has been accessed by a criminal entity (https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/display/?id=29966). Based on our investigations, we believe a small proportion of data has been copied and that some of the data relate to some of our students and alumni. We have directly contacted those individuals who may have been affected by this through University channels. We understand the concern created for those who may have been directly affected and support is available to these individuals and all our students and colleagues. 

We continue to encourage all our students and colleagues to take up the offer of the 12-month subscription with Experian; details were shared in an email communication earlier this week. We understand this continues to be a concerning time for our community, and we encourage colleagues to access our wellbeing support where needed and continue to direct any concerned students to the wellbeing support available. 

Payments for colleagues and postgraduate researchers  

To provide some reassurance, there is no reason for colleagues to be concerned about their pay. We are confident regarding the ongoing processes of payroll. June’s payroll has been received by the bank and payslips are available on MyView.  

We have advised the bank of our current situation in the normal course of processing, which is very encrypted, and every effort will be made to limit the impact on payment processing. Some of our colleagues are paid mid-month and that payment has been processed as normal and payments have been received. 

Our postgraduate research colleagues received their stipends for June and July in advance. This step was taken to ensure access to studentship payments was not disrupted. These stipends are not processed through People and Organisational Development and are therefore subject to a different process. This decision was made in the context of the cyber incident and considerations about the best way we could support our students if we had limited access to systems. 

Mandatory cyber and data protection training  

Given the current situation with the cyber incident, it is especially important for colleagues to understand data protection and cyber security.  

Data Protection & Cyber Security training was made available in October 2022 for all staff to complete by the end of January 2023. If you have not already completed the training, you must do so as soon as possible. 

• More information:Reminder: Mandatory Data Protection and Cyber Security training | StaffNet | The University of Manchester