Rutgers University continues to work to restore its computer network following a "denial of service" attack that crippled campus systems.

"Rutgers" is spelled out by bushes on the New Brunswick campus (Rutgers)
"Rutgers" is spelled out by bushes on the New Brunswick campus (Rutgers)
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The university's IT Department posted an update Thursday afternoon admitting that network service remains "degraded" due to persistent and ongoing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

"We are making progress towards restoring all network services to normal operating status and working with the Chancellors to develop contingency plans for online exams," said the message from Don Smith, Vice President of the school's Office of Information Technology posted on the Rutgers IT site and emailed to staff and students.

Smith explained that his staff has taken steps to reduce the DDoS with hardware upgrades and web server improvements. "Simultaneously, OIT and the Rutgers Police Department are actively working in consultation with the FBI and the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness to investigate the source of the attacks," wrote Smith.

Rutgers' Internet service went down about 10 a.m. Monday. Many online functions are still unavailable to students, faculty and university staff. Registration was scheduled to resume late Wednesday night for New Brunswick students so the process would be done before the last day of classes.

Many are frustrated at the crippled service and continue to post on social media. "This is getting ridiculous we have exams and assignments to complete I cannot access most of the things and the due dates have not changed. It's taking too long to fix the problem which affects students in the end." posted one punctuation-challenged student.

Others are taking it in stride. "There was a group that had a presentation the other day and needed to refer to a website on the internet but couldn't, so it hindered their presentation," explained one Rutgers senior. "But my professor was very understanding and made a joke out of it."

Rutgers internet issues may be partially caused by the school itself as it tries to makes its network available off-campus as much as possible.

"A university has students and has faculty, and it becomes much more challenging for universities to completely lock the door from a security perspective because universities are supposed to be open by their very nature," Neal Strum, chief information officer at Farleigh-Dickinson told The Record.

Rutgers technicians had to restore Internet service following a cyberattack at the beginning of the month that lasted five days. The FBI is investigating both incidents according to MyCentralJersey.com.

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Connie Lee and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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