The San Diego Community College District experienced a cyber attack beginning on May 2, which forced the district to suspend internet services at all district facilities and created uncertainty as the spring semester heads into its final weeks. The internet remains down and is an ongoing issue for the entire district. The breach has greatly affected campuses and classes, and here’s what is known about the issue.

According to Jack Beresford, Vice Chancellor of Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs at Mesa College, there is no timeline for when the internet will be back up.

The cyber attack comes at a time of year that can be rather busy for students in the community college district, especially with class registrations coming around the corner and already open to some. Summer and fall semester class registrations are found in the mySDCCD website which was recently affected by the attack. It’s currently back up according to mySDCCD info hub message sent to students in the district, and registrations should be fine as long as students are registering at home.

“The mySDCCD portal is still operational so students are able to register for their classes, pay for their classes, check their grades, all the things the portal is there for,” said Beresford. “The only challenge would be trying to do so on the campus internet.”

Students and staff make up for most of the people affected by the internet going down, with classes being cut short or cancelled in general due to not being able to move forward without it. 

“I would say it’s kind of frustrating. Like, we’re having issues with our lab today because of the Wi-Fi going out and everything like that,” said Clair Walrath, a student at Mesa College. “But I do understand that there was, like, a reason why it was shut down, so I’m not, like, upset, but it’s just kind of, like, an inconvenience with our learning and everything like that.”

“A lot of my classes have not been the same, and a lot of the due dates have been pushed back. Since it’s so close to the end of the semester it’s kinda stressful. It’s the same amount of work, just less time to do it.” said Samara Seaton, a communications and marketing major.

Even what one might not think is affected by the internet, is indeed affected. On campus eateries, such as the cafe near student affairs  are currently closed due to the purchasing screens not being accessible due to the persisting internet shutdown.

“I normally eat on campus so I couldn’t get an acai bowl from 7250 this morning. That’s usually what gets me through the day and what makes me look forward to coming on campus, is the food from 7250. I had to resort to a last minute cup of noodles from the stand,” said Ashlyn Bui, a biology major.

All classes are being held as usual unless the professor provides prior notice. The lack of internet has caused some forms of hindrance for classes leaving professors to improvise, or cancel class in general.

Another reason why this time of the semester is busy for students is transcript ordering. Transcripts both incoming and outgoing are currently down and unavailable to students. Transfer and graduating students may have to wait a while for their transcripts due to the recent breach. 

As for campus life, the majority of events have not been cancelled because of these issues according to Director of Communications Anabell Pulido, but some events like the “Remembering the Nakba 1948-present” event on May 5 and the screening of “LUNAR: The Jewish-Asian Film Project” on May 6 have been postponed.

According to Chancellor Gregory Smith, the SDCCD IT team is currently working on a solution and at the earliest internet access will be restored on Friday.

This article was updated as of May 12, 2026.

The internet remains down on campus for Mesa College, continuing to affect classes and activities for students and staff. Actions continue to take place to restore Wi-fi on campus.

Staff was asked to reboot all devices connected to the network on campus in order to restore functionality. According to SDCCD Chancellor Gregory Smith in an email sent to Mesa College staff, the purpose of restarting the devices is so that they can do an “automated scan for any malicious software can proceed.”

“At this time, approximately 700 of our 5,500+ devices have been scanned with no issues identified,” said Smith. “As soon as we can get all devices powered on and scanned, we can expand the restoration of all services.”

The Mesa Press will continue with updates on the story as new information becomes available. 

The following Mesa Press staff members contributed to this story: Yui Matsuwaki, Nathan Morales, Gabriel Valadez, Sonia Lee, and Silvia Cortez.