The USI website underwent a security scare from 14:00 until 16:00 on 28 January 2013.
No compromised systems were discovered, no malware was detected and we believe that the security scare, through Cisco’s Reputation system (Sender Base) was a false positive, caused by another site impersonating our server’s IP address.
The site was blocked to the public by USI as we updated our security systems, backed up our files and performed multiple scans of the code on the website. Scanning was carried out by USI and by our service provider. Nothing was found, but vulnerabilities were discovered which have now been patched.
Access to the USI website through any network secured by Cisco automated blacklisting (at least NUI, Galway) is likely to be down for up to a week.
Update: Less than 24 hrs later, the situation has been resolved.