Students Blamed For University & College Cyber Attacks

A security analysis of cyber-attacks against universities and colleges in the UK has discovered staff or students could often be responsible, rather than organised crime or hacking groups. 

A government-funded agency that provides cybersecurity has examined the timing of 850 attacks in 2017-18. Jisc found a "clear pattern" of attacks being concentrated during term times and during the working day. When the holidays begin, "the number of attacks decreases dramatically".

The analysis of cyberattacks on the research and academic network concludes there are "suspicions that staff or students could be in the frame".

Rather than criminal gangs or agents of foreign powers, the findings suggest many of the attacks on universities and colleges are more likely to have been caused by disgruntled staff or students wanting to provoke "chaos".
Stopping for the holidays

"It's notoriously difficult to identify individual cyber-criminals," says Dr John Chapman, head of security operations for Jisc, (formerly the Joint Information Systems Committee). But the agency, which provides internet and computer services across the higher and further education sectors, has produced a report showing that the peaks and troughs of attacks mirror when students and staff were most likely to be present.

They increased from 08:00 or 09:00 and then tailed off in the early afternoon. There was a very sharp decline in attacks in the Christmas, Easter and summer breaks and during half-terms - with attacks rising again sharply when terms resumed.
The incidence varied from more than 60 a week in some parts of the autumn term, down to one a week in mid-summer.
There were more than 850 attacks across the academic year, aimed at almost 190 universities and colleges. This was up from fewer than 600 attacks on about 140 institutions in the previous year.

These were sustained attempts at disrupting networks and did not include incidents such as phishing frauds or attempts to use "malware" or "ransomware".

Dr Chapman says the attempts could include sophisticated state-sponsored cyber-attacks from other countries and "serious criminal players", targeting research or trying to steal sensitive information. But the analysis suggests many of the attacks on networks seem to be closer to home.

These include so-called "denial of service" or "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks where hackers try to stop or overload networks, crashing computer systems. In one case, the security team monitored a pattern of attacks on an institution and saw they began at 09:00, finished at 12:00, began again at 13:00 and then finished about 15:00 to 16:00.
This raised the question whether this was caused by a student or member of staff, who took a break at lunchtime.

Causing chaos
Another investigation located the source of what seemed to be a four-day cyber-attack on a university. It was found to be coming from a university hall of residence and had been the result of an online gamer who had been "attacking another gamer to try and secure an advantage".

Other reasons could be a misplaced sense of "fun" at disrupting networks, "kudos among peers" for causing chaos or because of a grudge over poor grades or "failure to secure a pay rise".
The Jisc analysis says another factor in the summer dip could have been an international effort to take down so-called "stresser" sites.

These websites provide the means for carrying out "denial of service" attacks, which Jisc says can be sold "under the pretense" that the buyer wants to carry out a test to see how well their own network would withstand such an attack.

"So, there is evidence... to suggest that students and staff may well be responsible for many of the DDoS attacks we see," says Dr Chapman.

"If connectivity to the network is lost for any length of time, it can be catastrophic for any organisation, both financially and reputationally."

BBC: 

You Might Also Read:

Fraudsters £350k Spoof University Emails:

Canadian University Hit For $12m Phishing Scam:
 

 

« A Cyber Attack Could Cause The Next Financial Crisis
What Every Small Business Should Know About Hackers & Cybersecurity »

Infosecurity Europe
CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

The PC Support Group

The PC Support Group

A partnership with The PC Support Group delivers improved productivity, reduced costs and protects your business through exceptional IT, telecoms and cybersecurity services.

DigitalStakeout

DigitalStakeout

DigitalStakeout enables cyber security professionals to reduce cyber risk to their organization with proactive security solutions, providing immediate improvement in security posture and ROI.

Infosecurity Europe, 3-5 June 2025, ExCel London

Infosecurity Europe, 3-5 June 2025, ExCel London

This year, Infosecurity Europe marks 30 years of bringing the global cybersecurity community together to further our joint mission of Building a Safer Cyber World.

Syxsense

Syxsense

Syxsense brings together endpoint management and security for greater efficiency and collaboration between IT management and security teams.

BackupVault

BackupVault

BackupVault is a leading provider of automatic cloud backup and critical data protection against ransomware, insider attacks and hackers for businesses and organisations worldwide.

King & Spalding

King & Spalding

King & Spalding is an international law firm with offices in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Practice areas include Data, Privacy & Security.

PlaxidityX

PlaxidityX

PlaxidityX (formerly Argus Cyber Security) is a global leader in mobility cyber security, provides DevSecOps, vehicle protection and fleet protection technologies and services.

Conference-Service

Conference-Service

Conference-Service provides a categorised calendar of conferences and events, including Information Security & Privacy.

IPCopper

IPCopper

IPCopper specializes in network packet capture appliances for cybersecurity, cybersurveillance and network monitoring, and encrypted data storage.

Agari

Agari

Agari is the Trusted Email Identity Company™, protecting brands and people from devastating phishing and socially-engineered attacks.

Hague Security Delta (HSD)

Hague Security Delta (HSD)

The Hague Security Delta Campus is home of the leading cyber security cluster in Europe with an Innovation Centre, labs and training facilities.

Digital Infrastructure Association (DINL)

Digital Infrastructure Association (DINL)

DINL is the leading representative for companies and organisations which are active within the Dutch digital infrastructure sector.

exceet Secure Solutions

exceet Secure Solutions

exceet Secure Solutions is your experienced specialist for Internet of Things (IoT), Heath Telematics, electronic signatures and timestamps and IT security.

XTN Cognitive Security

XTN Cognitive Security

XTN is focused on the development of security, Fraud and Mobile Threat Prevention advanced behaviour-based solutions.

Savanti Consulting

Savanti Consulting

Savanti provides practitioner-led cyber security services tailored to meet each organisation’s unique requirements.

Jobsite

Jobsite

Jobsite is an award winning job board in the UK providing job listings in the key sectors of IT, Engineering and Finance.

Isovalent

Isovalent

Isovalent deliver the most advanced Kubernetes networking & security capabilities to the most demanding of enterprise users.

Teleport

Teleport

Teleport is a remote-first technology company. We enable engineers to quickly access any computing resource anywhere on the planet.

ELK Analytics

ELK Analytics

ELK Analytics is a specialized Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) that focuses on endpoint security and monitoring & alerting for any type of structured or unstructured data.

Cyabra

Cyabra

Cyabra is leading the fight against disinformation. Our AI shields companies and the public sector by uncovering malicious actors, bot networks, and GenAI content.

Syteca

Syteca

Syteca is specifically designed to secure organizations against threats caused by insiders. It provides full visibility and control over internal risks.