(Bloomberg) — A top Dutch university that is a key talent feeder for chip machine maker ASML Holding NV has shut down its computer network after a cyber attack.
Eindhoven University of Technology, about eight kilometers away from ASML's global headquarters, said there will be no lectures and educational activities until Tuesday at least. Turning off the network was a “necessary intervention to prevent worse outcomes,” Patrick Groothuis, vice president of the university, said in a statement on Sunday.
Experts are currently investigating the nature and extent of the hack, the university said in the statement. Officials noticed “a lot of suspicious activity” on the institution's servers late Saturday, and there has been no contact with the hackers, whose identities are not yet known, university spokesman Ivo Jongsma told Bloomberg News by phone.
“We are still investigating whether any data was stolen,” he said, adding that the university will share an update on the attack on Monday.
Eindhoven University of Technology has been caught in the crosshairs of the chip war between the US and China, as Washington seeks to limit Beijing's ability to produce semiconductors, Bloomberg News reported in July.
ASML, the world's only producer of advanced lithography machines needed to produce high-quality chips used in everything from electric vehicles to military equipment, has invested heavily in Eindhoven University of Technology to train future workers.
In May, the company pledged €80 million ($82 million) to the university to train PhD students and upgrade the school's cleanroom building, a dust- and pollution-free environment needed to study chips. The university has a laboratory building that houses ASML lithography machines for research purposes.
In November, ASML was hit by an IT outage that affected its facilities around the world.
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