Hamilton police tech crime unit investigates cyber security incident at McMaster University
Local hospitals are also taking precautions to protect from the cyber security incident
Hamilton police are investigating a cyber security issue at McMaster University.
Const. Krista-Lee Ernst said the school reported a technical issue on Monday shortly after noon.
She said the Tech Crime Unit is investigating.
"The investigation is in its infancy no further information will be released," she said.
McMaster shared few details about the incident but says its information technology (IT) security team first noticed the problem Sunday evening and said some university technology systems aren't available.
Spokesperson Wade Hemsworth said the school's investigation is ongoing.
"At this stage, data remains secure but is not currently accessible," he wrote.
"While the incident compromised a limited number of systems, we took some systems off-line as a precaution ... most parts of the university are not impacted."
In a release on Monday, the school said people should have updated contact information for employees in case university communication systems are affected.
Local hospitals watching situation closely
Local hospitals are also monitoring the situation closely.
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton spokesperson Maria Hayes said the hospital was working with McMaster to ensure it was unaffected.
"Access to McMaster hosted services, such as email, have been temporarily shut down as a precautionary measure," she said.
In a staff memo, Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) stated access to the university's networks and IT systems wasn't available.
Spokesperson Wendy Stewart said no HHS devices or networks have been affected as of Monday.