San Diego Community College District battles cyberattacks systems disrupted during summer enrollment

The San Diego Community College District, a public higher education system serving approximately 60,000 summer students, is responding to a significant cyberattack that began Saturday and disrupted key digital services across its campuses, officials said Monday.

The attack prompted the district to take portions of its network offline, including internet access, email systems, websites and student registration platforms, as cybersecurity teams worked to contain and restore affected services. District officials said the intrusion was detected immediately by internal security systems and emphasized that no data has been compromised.

“All the district’s four colleges remain open and most classes are continuing as scheduled,” spokesperson Jack Beresford said. “However, some operations such as bookstores and cafeterias may be closed, as are some offices with employees working remotely.”

Students and staff have been receiving updates through text alerts, the district’s Safe app, Canvas learning platform and social media channels. A campus-wide alert sent to San Diego City College students Monday morning confirmed that the cyberattack had been stopped and warned of intermittent service disruptions during restoration efforts. The message stated that user data remained secure and that no action was required from students.

Despite ongoing outages, campuses including San Diego City, Mesa, Miramar and Continuing Education colleges remained operational. Some in-person activities continued with adjustments, including faculty meetings conducted using printed materials due to lack of network access.

As of early Monday afternoon, internet connectivity remained unavailable across campuses, and the district’s student portal, which provides access to course materials and account information, was still offline. Emergency services were not affected, with campus police dispatch lines remaining open.

Chancellor Greg Smith informed the district community in a late afternoon message that the outage could extend into the following day, describing the attempted breach as “highly sophisticated and coordinated.” No motive for the attack has been identified.

Faculty members reported operational challenges as they adapted to the disruption. Computer science professor Mark Biagi noted the uncertainty that often accompanies cyber incidents, including limited information about the attackers or their intended targets.

The disruption comes during a critical enrollment period for summer classes. Later this month, the district is scheduled to award its first bachelor’s-level degrees to students enrolled in cybersecurity programs.