Washington DC - As if Covid-19 wasn't enough disruption, now Howard University students have had classes cancelled after their university network was hacked.

The historically black Howard University effectively closed its campus after a ransomware attack on September 3. The university has a specific set of instructions it followed as part of its "cyber response protocol," and it shut down its network after the incident became known.

Its official statement made clear that "[to] date, there has been no evidence of personal information being accessed or exfiltrated."

In an update to their statement following the attack, Howard University noted that the IT team is still investigating.

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To help keep things simple and as safe as possible for all, the university has kept the campus closed to all except essential employees. The plan is to do so until the extent of the attack is clear and before knowing if their systems are completely secure.

For now, students have access to some apps stored in the university servers' cloud, but most services, including Wi-Fi, are down.

Howard University recently received attention for honoring the late Chadwick Boseman. The Hollywood star, known for his role as Marvel's Black Panther, graduated from Howard University in 2000.

The university honored Boseman by officially renaming its Fine Arts building, the "Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts" on September 3.

The naming ceremony in Boseman's honor was on the same day as the ransomware attack at Howard University.