Wharton students experienced an emergency shutdown of the WebCafe computer network Friday afternoon as technicians addressed urgent security concerns.
According to Wharton Chief Information Officer Deirdre Woods, an internal audit revealed "activity that gave us some concern" on WebCafe, a service through which students can access course materials.
As a result, students were unable to access information on the network from 2 p.m. Friday until 9 a.m. Saturday.
She declined to give the details of the breach, citing security concerns, although she did say that Wharton staffers found evidence of a "sniffer" -- a program that enters a network through unpatched computers and searches for password information.
The potential breach originated overseas, she said, and not in the Penn community.
An e-mail was sent to all Wharton students explaining why the network was shut down.
The e-mail emphasized that there is no evidence that student account information has actually been stolen but that service was halted as a precaution to patch a newly discovered vulnerability.
The message also explained that Wharton users must change their passwords by March 31, in case any had been discovered as a result of the security problems.
Wharton students do not seem especially concerned with the situation, however.
"I think the Wharton computer consulting is really on top of things," Wharton freshman Rita Bagai said.
Wharton senior Nikki Caprio echoed those sentiments, saying, "I'm not too worried about it."
Woods reiterated that Wharton recommends its users have separate passwords for their Wharton and PennKey accounts.
Bagai and others, though, were unaware of the password recommendation.
Woods said that Wharton is continuing to battle potential hackers by conducting internal audits and receiving external advice from companies such as Microsoft.
It is difficult work, though.
"Hacker tools are getting easier to use," Woods said, adding that universities across the nation are struggling with these very same problems.
Woods would not say whether similar incidents have happened at Penn in the past.
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