Thousands of university students placed at financial risk after vicious cyber attack
Thousands of university students past and present have their data at risk after a cyber attack accessed records at the University of Nottingham.
Students and alumni were emailed a warning from the university telling them that yesterday (9 June) there was 'unauthorised activity within our Campus Solutions student records platform'.
This is something students use during their time at the university, and once the activity was detected the system was taken offline and an investigation launched.
While the University of Nottingham told students and alumni they didn't know exactly what had happened they suggested it could have been done by 'a well-known cybercriminal group that has previously targeted a number of other organisations'.
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With some details unknown at the moment the university is assuming that data on people's contact information such as their name and addresses, their court information and financial information on the system may have been accessed.
The university said in a statement: "The University of Nottingham has been the victim of a cyber incident and a significant amount of data in our student record system has been accessed by an external third party.
"We know this information is likely to cause concern for students and staff in our community and we apologise for any anxiety that this may cause.
"Two groups have been impacted by the incident – current students, and alumni.
"We are working to understand the data that has been accessed and have contacted those students and alumni affected directly. We are working closely with Action Fraud, the Information Commissioner’s Office, and other regulatory bodies.
"We will remain in contact with those directly impacted and will continue to provide updates as the situation develops.
"We have established a dedicated support line at 0115 74 86500; please also keep checking your university email address for further updates."
The university told students past and present they had contained the affected areas and were also 'working with expert cyber analysts' to be sure of the root cause behind this attack.
The university told LADbible they are continuing to investigate how many people have been affected, saying 'a significant amount of data in our student record system has been accessed by a well-known cybercriminal group'.
Advice and support will be sent out once they know more.
In a further statement they said: "We take the privacy and security of data that we hold seriously, and we have reported this incident to Action Fraud and the Information Commissioner’s Office.
"The university will continue to provide them with further information as our investigation progresses."
Joe Harker