The University of Manchester, one of the UK’s leading universities, has announced it has been the victim of a cyberattack.
On June 9, Patrick Hackett, Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, University of Manchester, released a statement on behalf of the institution: ‘Regrettably, I have to share with you the news that the university is the victim of a cyber incident. It has been confirmed that some of our systems have been accessed by an unauthorised party and data have likely been copied. Our in-house experts and established expert external support are working around the clock to resolve this incident. We are working to understand what data have been accessed and will update you as more information becomes available.’
The statement goes on to say: ‘You should be vigilant to any suspicious phishing emails.’
Raghu Nandakumara, Director of Critical Infrastructure Solutions, at Illumio, commented on the news: “The cause and extent of the attack are not yet clear, however, the university has done the right thing in quickly proactively notifying and engaging authorities and the public. Transparency is key when dealing with a data breach and fast information sharing and incident reporting is critical for boosting the resilience of businesses nationally.
“The fact that the university is advising staff and students not to download files and save them locally, suggests it still doesn’t yet know the extent of the compromise and has activated its response plan to prevent further spread.
“If data is found to have been compromised, then the potential impacts could be huge. Not only do universities have a huge raft of personal data on students and staff, but they also conduct valuable sensitive research and have a variety of technology and devices connected to the university network which increases attack exposure.
“It’s another example of why universities – and all businesses – must prioritise network segmentation and breach containment to reduce the impact of attacks.”
