Suzanne Smalley reports: A hacktivist with a “political agenda” broke into Columbia University IT systems and stole “targeted” student data in recent weeks, a university official said Tuesday. It is unclear how long the hacker was in university systems but a Columbia spokesperson said there has been no threat activity detected since June 24. Last…
Category: Education Sector
Ex-student charged with wave of cyber attacks on Sydney uni
Adam Vidler reports: A former student has been charged over a series of cyber attacks on a Sydney university that affected hundreds of staff and students. Since 2021, Western Sydney University had suffered a series of cyber hacks involving unauthorised access, data exfiltration, system compromise and misuse of university infrastructure – including threatening the sale of student…
Potential Cyberattack Scrambles Columbia University Computer Systems
Sharon Otterman reports: A potential cyberattack continued for a second day to cause widespread computer system outages at Columbia University on Wednesday as the school’s engineers worked to investigate the problem and restore service. The attack, which began in the early morning hours on Tuesday, initially shut down all systems on the school’s Morningside campus…
Breaches have consequences (sometimes) (1)
Connor Smith reports: Six months after a massive data breach that impacted students, families and school staff around the country – including each school district in Southeastern North Carolina – the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) has renewed part of its contract with the company at the center of the breach. On Monday,…
Dublin ETB fined €125,000 for data protection breaches
Cianan Brennan reports: Dublin’s Education and Training Board (CDETB) has been fined €125,000 by the Data Protection Commission after the personal details of 13,000 grant applicants were made available to “unauthorised persons”. The commission concluded after a six-year investigation that the ETB had breached GDPR in multiple ways by both failing to ensure sufficient security…
Moreno Valley, Calif., Schools Report Data Breach
Beau Yarborough reports: Moreno Valley Unified has warned its employees that sensitive information may have been shared with someone outside the organization. “We are currently investigating a matter involving the accidental sharing of a folder that contained certain documents and information,” Superintendent Alejandro Ruvalcaba wrote in a June 6 email to all employees. “While we continue to determine…