Colleges and Universities are Prime Cyber Attack Targets Cutting edge research has made Higher Education a prime target. Colleges face evolving cyber extortion threat. Universities and colleges are being warned by the UK's cyber-security agency that rising numbers of cyber-attacks are threatening to disrupt the start … Hackers can then demand payment for an encryption key. Alert issued to UK universities and colleges about spike in cyber attacks Original 106 Aberdeen 03:46. A 2007 hack exposed information including the social security numbers of up to 3,000 staff members as well as 400 state credit card numbers used for school purchases. In March 2018, well over 300 universities worldwide were victims of an organized cyber attack that compromised 31 terabytes of data. Secondly, we had to respond quickly to ensure that similar breaches did not occur again. Although it is clear that the information breaches occurred, there is no evidence that people were directly affected in any material way. BA will also be aware of the reputational and brand damage associated with the breach, and potential litigation. Temporary phone lines have also been established to respond to students' questions and concerns. IT staff at Regis are working “around the clock” to get things back to normal, John P. Fitzgibbons, president of the university, said in a letter to the campus last week posted on a temporary website created to provide students' updates on the outage. In summary, it is clear that cyber security is a critical business risk for universities and colleges, so it is vitally important that senior executive teams and governing bodies have a grasp of its significance and take appropriate actions to avoid becoming a victim. The institution has not said whether it chose to pay the ransom. Taking a step back for a moment, universities and colleges are at high risk of such threats because they typically have open, permissive, and highly distributed IT systems. Training alone may not solve the entire problem, but it is still critical to provide people with general cybersecurity best practices. Do you have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan in the event of a major cyber security incident and have you tested it. Mudd’s explanation for one of his attacks is that the college had not acted when he had reported that he had been mugged. Cyberattacks have caused major disruption in colleges across the UK over the past couple of years. Regis is not the only university to suffer from a crippling cyberattack just before the start of the new academic year. Ransomware is often installed after an unwitting victim clicks on a fraudulent link in a phishing email. Anticipating Cyberattacks on College and University Campuses By // Volume 23, Number 7 // Special Issue 2015 You need to login with AGB member credentials to view this content. Among the most common impacts reported to the survey were that attacks stopped staff from working and required additional staff time and extra money to recover. Cyber security attacks have emerged as one of the most significant threats to universities and colleges in recent years. Essay on lessons learned from the start of a college teaching career, Live Updates: Latest News on Coronavirus and Higher Education, Social Mobility at Comprehensive Public Universities, New federal data show what high school students seek in a college, Minority-serving colleges top peers in economic mobility, report finds, Trump Commutes Sentence of Man Accused of Bribing Penn, Report: Biden 'Poised' to Pick Connecticut Schools Chief as Education Secretary. Thirdly, we made rapid changes to digital policy, access and training and restricted rights that inconvenienced and annoyed some people. #thisisregis #JesuitEducated pic.twitter.com/hTGLA8MjkW. Looking beyond just financial gain, there are a number of other reasons why cyber attacks are hitting education institutions more frequently. It is not known whether the Regis cyberattack also involved ransomware, but if it did, it could represent a worrying trend of criminals targeting colleges while they are busy preparing to welcome new students. As at Regis, IT staff at Stevens intentionally disabled the college's network and some systems in response to the attack. Second, taking systems off-line can simplify the recovery process when an institution enacts its disaster-recovery plans,” he said in an email. The malicious software then encrypts and blocks access to computer files that the user has permission to access. Fifteen US school districts, accounting for 100 schools, were hit in the past two weeks alone. “We understand there have been questions about data security,” wrote Nariman Farvardin, president of Stevens, in a letter to the campus Aug. 18. Have you commissioned an honest and detailed independent assessment of your vulnerability to cyber security threats? Adam Mudd was also prosecuted for cyber attacks against his college. Two universities suffered devastating cyberattacks just before students returned to campus. Thania Benios, director of public relations at Stevens, said in an email that the cyberattack had involved ransomware, but the quick actions of Stevens’s IT staff prevented the need to respond to any ransom demand. “It’s not just colleges that are being targeted -- if you’re online, you’re in the crossfire,” said Phipps. “We’re not going to let some technology hiccups get in the way of welcoming the Class of 2023 to Regis in style,” they tweeted Friday. Classes began as scheduled Aug. 26. UK Top Stories . How many senior leaders know what these are and what risks each poses to their organisation? Jennifer Forker, director of communications at Regis, said it is still too soon to know the nature of the attack. Universities and further education colleges in NI suffered 16 serious cyber-attacks in 2017/18 compared to three the year before. In the case of the BA data breach, some 380,000 credit card transactions were taken and the initial fine was £183m. Christian Schreiber, solutions architect at cybersecurity company FireEye, said there are a couple of reasons why universities might choose to disable their own networks and systems after a cyberthreat is detected. Firstly, students at Lancaster University fell victim to a phishing attack, with fraudulent invoices sent to a number of students who had applied to join the university. Students arrived at the private university in Denver to find the institution's internet, email, phones and website shut down following the discovery of a cyberthreat last Thursday. "Hopefully soon," she said. while some university and college leaders are confident they have a high-level executive view of cyber security, many are concerned that they need to know more. Hackers specifically target universities for the sensitive information stored in their systems. The first deal of cyber criminals in Higher Education was an attack on Yale’s system in 2002 by hackers from Princeton University. Cyber attacks can be catastrophic events, potentially causing weeks of disruption and incurring heavy costs, not to mention the reputational damage. 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