In July 2023, the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) faced a serious cyberattack that forced nearly half of its IT systems offline. Critical systems, including staff and student portals, were impacted—placing essential operations at risk and testing the university’s cybersecurity resilience.
For UWS, one of the most significant concerns was managing nearly 2,500 student placements, which account for around 50% of the program requirements. Without access to student records and placement information, progression could have stalled, creating both reputational and financial consequences for the university.
Yet, in the midst of this crisis, InPlace and the Quantum IT support team ensured that placement operations continued.
Keeping Placements Moving During the Breach
As UWS isolated its systems to contain the attack, staff lost access to their Student Records System. Without this, administrators had no clear visibility into which students required placements or what type of experiences were needed to meet program outcomes.
Because InPlace was designed with cybersecurity resilience at its core, the system remained available to staff and students. Within hours, Quantum IT implemented secure direct login processes—bypassing the university’s single sign-on authentication—and utilized the built-in InPlace authentication and Multi-Factor Authentication to delegate access to all required placement information for users, while maintaining data governance and security standards.
This meant students and staff could continue using InPlace, even while other critical systems remained offline.
A Trusted Partner in a Time of Need
Operating with static data was a challenge, but InPlace worked closely with UWS staff and IT teams to create a manual data protocol. Staff securely extracted the updated student records, formatted them, and uploaded them to InPlace multiple times per week until the automated Student Records System feed was fully restored.
Meanwhile, Quantum IT supported technical recovery—advising on requirements, testing configuration changes, and validating data integrity. This collaboration enabled InPlace to be one of the first systems restored following the attack.
The Result: Continuity in Crisis
Without InPlace, placement operations could have come to a standstill—delaying student progression, impacting accreditation, and creating reputational risk. Instead, UWS maintained continuity. Students remained on track, staff had access to critical placement information, and the university safeguarded its outcomes during a challenging time.
“If we didn’t have the support from QuantumIT following the Cyber Security Breach, it would have been almost impossible to arrange placements for 2,500 students. The Quantum Team had isolated InPlace and created a direct login process. This quick thinking ensured we were operational (within InPlace) and staff and students had access to their placements.” – Andrea Ruthven, External Operations Manager, University of the West of Scotland.
Planning for the Unexpected
The UWS experience serves as a reminder that higher education institutions require robust safeguards and adaptable systems to safeguard critical operations.
With InPlace—and the added strength of our specialized cybersecurity response module—universities gain more than a placement management system. They gain the confidence that, even in a crisis, they’ll have a trusted partner ready to stand tall beside them.
