The admission of the first batch of students into the Kumasi Technical University has stalled as hackers cause the school’s official website and admission portal to shut down.
The two systems of the school, formerly Kumasi Polytechnic, have been down for two months, making it impossible for prospective local and international students to access it for download of registration forms, prospectuses, fee payments and general information.
Authorities say the cyber criminals are demanding money as a condition for restoring the system.
Kumasi Polytechnic is one of the first six polytechnics to be converted into technical universities.
Vice-chancellor, Professor Nsowah-Nuamah, revealed this at the 3rd International Conference on Applied Science and Technology in Kumasi.
“Hacking into the website of organisations and institutions have become the order of the day and Kumasi Polytechnic has been a victim of this menace. For the past two months or so, our website has been dormant because it was hacked into,” he revealed.
He told Nhyira FM that besides the inconvenience caused to students and authorities, the development can negatively affect the university’s local and international rating.
“I know it will affect our ranking because the ranking institutions usually depend on the website. For about two months or three months, this thing has been happening. In fact, they hacked into it the first time, we corrected it and then they did it again so it’s like nobody would be able to access the website.
“That will affect our image because whatever you are doing will not be known by any institution outside,” he said.
Police suspect blackmail as they launch an investigation into the crime.
Professor Nsowah-Nuamah explained the hackers seem unrelenting as efforts to restore the systems have not been successful.