Email service breach FAQ's

You must create a new password by the timeline shared below. When that time expires, you will be locked out of your account and will need to contact IST to unlock it for you. 

Staff/faculty: June 8

Grad students (employees): June 8

Grad students (non-employee), Incoming first-year undergraduates, and undergraduate students: June 22

If you manage a service, general or shared account, such as communications@uwaterloo.ca for example, you must also create a new WatIAM password for every account within this timeframe. Otherwise, these accounts will be locked as well, and it will take time for IST to unlock them. 

Please refer to the change your WatIAM password article for guidance or follow the steps at the end of this email, and make sure you create a strong password.  

Step-by-step password reset instructions 

1. Log into WatIAM using your 8-character UWaterloo username (e.g. myuserna) and your current password. 
2. Click on the Change Password button. 
3. Enter your new password into the Password and Confirm Password fields. The new password must be different from your old password--do not reuse a password. 
4. Once submitted, click on your name at the top-right corner of the page and select Logout.  

Your password is now reset across all of your UWaterloo accounts such as Quest, Learn, Workday, WaterlooWorks, and Outlook.

If you have used your UWaterloo password for non-UWaterloo accounts, it is advised to also change those passwords now.  

If you still cannot log in, or see an error about connecting to the domain, contact helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca. 

The University of Waterloo recently interrupted a ransom attack on one of our online systems while it was in progress. Our IT team continues to work diligently to assess whether any further online systems were affected and is counting to take steps to secure online systems and data and are working with affected campus units to keep them informed of our progress. 

Our IT team is working diligently to assess whether any further online systems were affected and is continuing to take steps to secure systems and data.  

During our initial response, Waterloo’s WatIAM system was temporarily disabled, but has since been moved backed online.

All WatIAM users are required to update their WatIAM password before accessing University information systems.

It's likely that personal data was compromised for those accounts hosted on the on-campus email exchange server when it was breached. The IST team is working to confirm the scope and is in contact with those directly affected already. If your email was not affected (if you use Microsoft Office 365), it is unlikely that your data was compromised.

No. Ongoing campus construction cut a fibre connection to the East Campus data centre causing additional system outages, including the University of Waterloo website.

No. At this time, we believe our cloud systems and services were unaffected by the breach. Remote work did not contribute to this issue.

Yes. If you have a uwaterloo.ca email account that is not yet hosted by Office 365, please contact the IST Helpdesk to request migration.

Email communication is being sent to students that the extension is being made. The new deadline will be sent when available.