Data from six universities in the United Kingdom have been compromised after a global cyberattack that targeted Blackbaud, one of the largest providers for education, fundraising, and financial administration software.
The company has been criticized for hiding about the attack, which happened in May. It was only divulged in public in July after it paid the hackers an undisclosed ransom.
Blackbaud released a statement on its website following the investigation about the attack that transpired in May. Blackbaud's Cyber Security team has prevented the cybercriminal from controlling their system and encrypting the files, in cooperation with independent forensics experts and law enforcement.
While they were able to oust the hackers from Blackbaud's system, the attackers were able to delete take away a data subset copy. The hackers were not able to access social security numbers as well as credit card and bank account information.
Yet, South Carolina-based company said it paid the ransom after attackers promised that all stolen data, including phone numbers and donation history, will be destroyed. "Because protecting our customers' data is our top priority," the company added.
According to the Daily Mail, among the affected universities in the U.K. were the Oxford Brookes University, University of York, Loughborough University, University of Leeds, University of Reading, and the University of London.
They have already apologized to their students, alumni, and sponsors for the breach as the attackers have gained access to their former students who had been supporting the establishments financially, although in some cases, the staff, existing students, and other supporters' details have also been compromised.
Similarly, the BBC News reported that the ransomware attack also compromised the files of Ambrose University in Canada and the Rhode Island School of Design in America as well as those of Human Rights Watch and the charity group Young Minds.
Against paying the ransom
Following the Blackbaud's decision to pay the ransom, the FBI, National Crime Agency and Europol discourage the victims of a cyberattack from giving in to criminal's demands.
In a statement, the FBI said that paying the ransom does not ensure that victims will regain access to their file or any stolen data will be deleted. Instead, it only encourages criminals to continue doing such evil activity to others. "Paying ransoms emboldens criminals to target other organizations and provides an alluring and lucrative enterprise to other criminals," the FBI added.
Instead, the authorities advise the public to have "a robust system of backups," which is the most vital protection against any cyberattack. Also, companies or organizations should have a backup file, which can restore the files in case of an attack. More importantly, they must not wait to experience an attack before investing in backups and other security tools. It is better to have them for protection, not a remedy.
Breach of privacy
Companies must report a significant breach to data authorities within 72 hours of learning of an incident, according to the General Data Protection Regulation. However, Blackbaud only informed the Canadian and British information authorities about the attack on July 18.
Meanwhile, Leeds University released a statement regarding the issue. "We have been working tirelessly to investigate what has happened in order to accurately inform those affected," the university said. It also added advised everyone to remain vigilant.
