Lancaster University Hit By Data Thieves

Lancaster University has been subject to a sophisticated and malicious phishing attack which has resulted in breaches of student and applicant data. The matter has been reported to law enforcement agencies and we are now working closely with them. 

Lancaster University has said they are aware of two breaches of data:

1. Undergraduate student applicant data records for 2019 and 2020 entry have been accessed. This includes information such as their name, address, telephone number, and email address. We are aware that fraudulent invoices are being sent to some undergraduate applicants. We have alerted applicants to be aware of any suspicious approaches.  
2. A breach has also occurred of the student records system and the University says that at the present time they know of a very small number of students who have had their record and ID documents accessed. They are contacting those students to advise them what to do.

A number of UK universities have been hit by cyber-attacks and now Lancaster has reported their attack to the National Crime Agency and the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Lancaster University said it acted as soon as it became aware of breaches of student and applicant data on 19 July 2019 by setting up an incident response team and reporting the matter to the ICO.

A cyber phishing attack, using apparent emails from UK’s Lancaster University has resulted in a large amount of student personal data being stolen. Since the data theft fake invoices have been sent to undergraduates asking for money.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the university had suffered a "compromise of its systems".

In a statement, the university said it became aware of a breach on Friday and has been working to secure its systems.
It said the data included names, addresses, phone numbers and emails, linked to students who had applied to join the university in 2019 and 2020.

According to the report sponsored by VMware and Dell EMC, cyber-attacks on UK universities presents an increasing risk to national security, with 93% of university research commissioned by government and almost a third of that relating to national security. Since discovering the breaches, the university said it had focused on safeguarding its IT systems and identifying and advising students and applicants who have been affected.

“This work of our incident team is ongoing, as is the investigation by law enforcement agencies,” the university said in a statement.....We acted as soon as we became aware that Lancaster was the source of the breach on Friday and established an incident team to handle the situation."

‘It was immediately reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Since 19th July we have focused on safeguarding our IT systems and identifying and advising students and applicants who have been affected. This work of our incident team is ongoing as is the investigation by law enforcement agencies.’

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