‘Significant’ amount of data stolen in Nottingham cyberattack

A “significant” amount of data at the University of Nottingham has been accessed by hackers, adding to the institution’s woes at a time when it is undergoing deep job cuts.

Both current students and alumni have been affected by the cyberattack, which came to light on 9 June.

Criminal group ShinyHunters has reportedly claimed responsibility for the hack – a “pay or leak” extortion campaign that could see students’ personal and financial records published online.

This is the same group that last month targeted the Canvas learning platform, operated by edtech firm Instructure, affecting thousands of universities worldwide.

In Nottingham’s case, a separate “Campus Solutions” student records system was compromised. Monitoring programs have identified up to 450,000 individual email addresses affected by the hack, although it is understood that this figure includes duplicates in the system and that the actual number of people affected will be lower.

A university spokesperson said that Nottingham had been the “victim of a cyber incident, and a significant amount of data in our student record system has been accessed by a well-known cybercriminal group”.

“We are working with the third party that maintains the platform to lead a forensic investigation. We understand that those affected will have concerns about what this means for their personal data, and we will be offering advice and support to our students as we learn more.”

Action Fraud, the Information Commissioner’s Office and other regulatory bodies have been notified, the spokesperson added.

The ICO confirmed that it was aware of the incident and was “assessing the information provided”.

Last month, Nottingham sent risk of redundancy letters to 2,700 staff, warning them that more than 600 jobs will be cut as the university attempts to reduce its £85 million deficit.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com