Leipzig University hack takes down email and online services
Germany's Leipzig University was hit by a cyber-attack on 28 October 2026, and shut down all internet-connected servers. Digital services such as email and the student portal went down, affecting about 30,000 students. The university resumed contact through external email systems in some departments and extended deadlines for coursework and theses. Service outages continued through 2 November, and the intrusion route and whether data was leaked are under investigation.
Key facts
- Affected organisation
- Leipzig University
- Incident type
- Hacking & intrusion
- Occurred / detected
- 2026-10-28
- Scale of damage
- Email and online service disruption for about 30,000 students
- Cause / method
- Shutdown of internet-connected servers due to a hacking attack
- Location
- Germany
Timeline
- After the cyber-attack, the university shut down all internet-connected servers, taking down its website and student and staff email.
- Services were not restored, and the interruption of email reception for students and staff continued.
- The earliest date given for bringing the servers back online was 2 November.
- Some departments resumed contact through external email systems, and deadlines for coursework and theses were extended.
- As the digital service outage continued, concerns were raised that restoration could take weeks, and the intrusion route and whether data was leaked are under investigation.
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The summary and key facts are written by AI from related reports and may contain errors. Check the original articles and the organisation’s official statements for accurate details.