Central administrative services at universities across Baden-Württemberg remain crippled after an attack on the Hochschulservicezentrum Baden-Württemberg (HSZ-BW) in Reutlingen, detected on the evening of 7 October 2026 and detailed on 19 October. The centre, which runs central IT for the state's applied-sciences and education universities, art and music academies, the Cooperative State University and cultural institutions, shut down its internet connection, systems and telephone network. Finance, HR and building management are worst affected: with the link to the state office for salaries and pensions severed, universities cannot pay student assistants or scholarship recipients, lecturers at the Karlsruhe University of Music are receiving no advance payments, and Pforzheim University cannot settle digital invoices, while students in Karlsruhe and Pforzheim have no access to exam results. At the Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Design the application portal is offline, applications must be emailed, and transcripts, enrolment certificates, BAföG and health-insurance documents are unavailable. Reutlingen police and the Karlsruhe public prosecutor's cybercrime division are investigating; the cause is officially described only as malware, with ransomware unconfirmed and ransom demands anticipated. Why it matters: one shared platform has stalled payroll, admissions and student records across a state higher-education system at once.

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