UK universities are hacked in ‘white hat’ job

It can be a huge problem if universities are hacked. Reports suggest that more needs to be done when it comes to educational cyber defence, as recent reports have confirmed that white hat hackers managed to easily break into systems.

According to media reports, white hat hackers managed to gain access to “high value” data from universities in hours. In case you’re not sure, “white hat hackers” are essentially hackers who break into systems for non-malicious proposes. They often inform the organisations they have hacked so they can improve their security. They’re often security specialists themselves.

We’ve seen the damage that university data breaches can cause. We continue to run an action for victims of the University of Greenwich Data Leak. In that case, a wealth of personal and sensitive data was exposed.

Huge problems if universities are hacked

There could be huge problems if universities are hacked. They hold a wealth of personal and sensitive data about their students and staff. This can include medical needs; whether that’s physical or mental health needs. There’s also the financial data they hold, and information about educational performance and requirements.

But they can also be a target for the high value data they hold in terms of research as well. Universities are at the forefront of pioneering research, and hackers could gain access to top-secret information. This recent white hat hacking incident perhaps highlights that there’s a need for greater security within the UK’s education sector.

Personal attacks

There has also been many cyberattacks aimed at students directly as well. Phishing attacks, including scams about grants or updating financial information for loans, are said to be prevalent.

You can imagine a student desperately waiting for their loan money falling victim to that kind of scam. Education cybersecurity is important, and universities would do well to make sure their students are prepared for being targets themselves.

What can you do if universities are hacked?

If universities are hacked and your personal information has been exposed, you may be entitled to make a claim for data breach compensation.

We can represent victims on a No Win, No Fee basis for cases we accept. If we believe that more could – and should – have been done to protect your data from being hacked, there can be a claim to make.

With the recent reports suggesting that more does need to be done to protect the education sector, we could see a big breach event happen soon.

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