The Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences was forced to disconnect critical systems from the web after suffering a security incident on July 6, 2024. Among other things, according to a statement issued by the university, the institute “has no capacity for inbound or outbound communication by way of phone or email at present”.
At the moment, it’s not possible to foresee when the IT systems and services will be fully available again, a message on the university’s homepage informs visitors. The extent of the attack can also not yet be gauged at the present time. For security reasons, even the elevators have been powered down.
At least as far as their email communication goes, it would have been advisable for the state-run university of applied sciences to take the precaution of setting up an email continuity solution. Retarus Email Continuity, for instance, is an externally hosted email system in the Retarus Enterprise Cloud, which can be activated as a fallback without delay in emergency situations, allowing an organization to keep communicating via email even after its own infrastructure has been shut down.
The solution is already running behind the scenes during regular operations, and is reconciled with the company’s active directory. Depending on how the service has been configured, when the fallback option is activated it not only displays the current contact addresses but also the email threads of the previous days or weeks.
Find out more about Retarus Email Continuity on our website or directly from your local Retarus representative.
