Students and staff could be behind university cyber attacks

The Evening Express is reporting that a security analysis reveals that students and staff could be responsible for cyber attacks on university and colleges.

Jisc, which provides universities and colleges with digital support across the UK… said data from the past 12 months showed that attacks peaked during term time, and dropped dramatically during holiday periods over summer, Christmas, Easter and half terms…

“This pattern could indicate that attackers are students or staff, or others familiar with the academic cycle,” said John Chapman, head of Jisc’s security operations centre…”

In the last academic year, Jisc recorded more than 840 attacks on 189 universities and colleges, an average increase on 2016/17, when 139 institutions were attacked 578 times.

“While DDoS attacks are one of the most common cyber incidents we see, there are many other threats facing colleges and universities, including phishing emails designed to dupe the recipient into giving away sensitive information such as passwords, and malware and ransomware,” Dr Chapman said.

“At this time of year we see an increase in phishing emails targeting students.

“Typically, they will receive an email that appears to be from the student loans company (SLC) which tries to trick them into giving away banking details or their login information to the SLC website.”

Read more at Students and staff could be behind cyber attacks, data suggests

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