College of DuPage students who use their laptops, cellphones and iPads may have noticed the campus Internet was down several times last week. The college received several denial of service attacks, according to Charles Currier, vice president of information technology.

“Basically, somebody hit our website with millions of hits in the space of three minutes,” Currier said.

COD’s online system is not designed to handle that many hits. As a result, users were blocked from using the school Internet and accessing crucial services like Blackboard and the school email system.

Currier and his team are working to find out who exactly is attacking COD’s Internet service.

“I would like students to know that we have involved the law enforcement,” Currier said.

Until officials know exactly who is attacking COD’s internet service, the attacks cannot be stopped.

“We are doing everything in our power to alleviate it,” Currier said.

While COD is at risk of more attacks until the attackers are found, Currier wanted to reassure students their personal data is in safe hands. The goal of a Denial of Service attack is to disable service not steal data.

“There have been no data breaches,” Currier said.

While law enforcement track down suspects, one of COD’s internet service providers, Illinois Century Network, has increased the college’s bandwidth. 

Whoever is attacking the school could face legal charges. And if the perpetrator were a student, they could face expulsion from COD.

Last December, two students from St. Charles East High School carried out similar attacks. This resulted in a lack of service for the entire St. Charles school district and the involvement of the FBI. The students were eventually caught and expelled from the school district.