Good research requires responsible data management.

DataHub offers the tools and services to help you with this.

News

18-02-2020
Cyber attack update: DataHub infrastructure operational

We are happy to announce that the DataHub infrastructure is back in business. You can use our infrastructure as you were used to before the cyber attack. Since the attack, our staff have been working hard to reactivate all systems and we are pleased to announce that our services now are back online. While we were unavailable, we have also worked on new features that improve our backend functionality.

In the first week of January, we have assessed the state of all our DataHub servers to confirm the safe state. The DataHub servers that were affected by the ransomware are involved in workflow control and data transfer. The servers did not contain any crucial data. We are currently re-enabling our systems, however, in recovery, we depend on the availability of the corporate network and firewall configurations. The university effectuated a stricter policy regarding server requirements and reconfiguring systems to meet those requirements takes time. At the same time, we are improving the DataHub infrastructure and taking measurements to reduce vulnerability.

Prevention

One of the ‘lessons learnt’ is that Maastricht University wants to focus more on awareness campaigns in order to reduce the number of successful malicious attempts. The security awareness level at DataHub for phishing and password management is reasonably okay. Still, DataHub supports the idea of a broad cyber security awareness campaign.

Technical measures

Measures were already in place regarding federated admin access on DataHub systems, but are now hardened to make lateral network jumps via compromised servers and accounts across DataHub systems less likely. Firewalls, local as well as central, have been configured more strictly and now also serve as a second line of defense. We continue to apply security updates frequently. A central monitoring and an alerting system for detecting suspicious activity are in place. Improvements can and will be made.

Backups

DataHub has central configuration management of servers in place.
Offline backups are available.

More information
We will inform you as soon as there are any new developments. We estimate to be back in business very soon. Updates will be given on the DataHub portal. For questions about DataHub services, please send an email.

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About DataHub

At DataHub, we provide data management services for (non-) clinical studies. DataHub is an institutional data broker that provides data management services to researchers from the academic hospital and university. Our cross-organisational infrastructure enables researchers from multiple disciplines to reuse valuable data from the hospital, the university, and beyond. DataHub works according to the FAIR principles, which specify that data and metadata should be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. We continuously improve our services in order to provide added value to researchers who want to do more with their data.