Universidad de Costa Rica

The Portal de Revistas Académicas operates as the official digital platform for academic journals of the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR). Its core function is to host, disseminate, and preserve the university's scholarly output, providing open access to research publications across various disciplines. This service supports the academic mission of UCR, which is Costa Rica's premier public university, by ensuring the visibility and long-term accessibility of its faculty and student research. The portal serves as a centralized repository, managing the editorial workflows and digital archiving for the institution's journals. It is an integral component of the university's research infrastructure, catering primarily to the academic community, researchers, and the general public interested in Costa Rican scholarship. The platform's scope is defined by the publications of UCR's various schools and research institutes, reflecting the university's comprehensive academic portfolio. While the specific number of journals or users is not provided, its role is fundamental to the university's commitment to knowledge sharing. The portal's existence underscores UCR's position as a leading research institution in Central America, facilitating the regional and international distribution of its scientific and humanistic work. Its operational continuity is therefore critical to the university's academic reputation and the preservation of its intellectual heritage.

The portal's operational resilience was notably tested on June 6, 2025, when it suffered a significant cyberattack. This incident prompted an immediate temporary disconnection of the service as a precautionary measure to contain the threat and prevent further damage. University technical teams responded by activating incident management protocols. A key outcome of this event was the confirmation that prior preventive security measures successfully preserved the integrity of all stored journal data, preventing any loss or corruption of the academic content. Following the containment, technical teams began implementing corrective measures and planning essential software updates to restore secure operations. University leadership maintained communication with journal managers throughout the incident, providing updates on the recovery process. This event has also spurred a review aimed at exploring long-term security and sustainability improvements for the platform. The attack highlights the persistent cybersecurity challenges facing academic infrastructure and the portal's reliance on robust defensive and recovery protocols to safeguard scholarly assets. The response demonstrated a structured approach to crisis management within the university's IT framework, focused on data preservation and systematic remediation.