ASML-Backed Dutch University Suspends Classes After Cyber Attack

(Bloomberg) — A top Dutch technical university that’s 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, which is located about five miles from ASML’s global headquarters, said there will be no lectures and educational activities at least until Tuesday. Switching off the network was a “necessary intervention to prevent worse outcomes,” Patrick Groothuis, the university’s vice president, 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’s been no contact with the hackers whose identity isn’t yet known, Ivo Jongsma, the university’s spokesman, told Bloomberg News by phone.

“We are still looking into whether any data has been stolen,” he said, adding the university will share an update on the attack on Monday.

Eindhoven University of Technology has been caught in the crosshairs of the US-China chip war as Washington seeks to limit Beijing’s ability to produce semiconductors, Bloomberg News reported in July. 

ASML, which is the world’s only producer of advanced lithography machines needed to produce high-end chips used in everything from electric vehicles to military gear, has invested heavily in Eindhoven University of Technology to instruct future employees. 

In May, the company pledged €80 million ($82 million) to the university to train doctoral students and upgrade the school’s clean room building, which is a dust- and contaminant-free environment needed to study chips. The university has a lab building which houses ASML lithography machines for research purposes. 

In November, ASML was struck by an IT outage that affected its facilities around the world.

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