"Royal Ransomware Claims Attack on Queensland University of Technology"
The Royal ransomware gang has recently claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and begun to leak data allegedly stolen during the security breach. QUT is one of the largest universities in Australia by the number of students (52,672). The university is focused on scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical studies and has received significant government funding to back its research in recent years. QUT disclosed a cyberattack on January 1st, 2023, and warned students and academic staff of inevitable service disruptions resulting from the security incident. The university shut down all IT systems to prevent the attack's spread, and the university is working with external experts to respond to the security incident. The university stated that their campuses will reopen on January 3rd, 2023, but it is expected that there will be some system disruptions that will continue for some weeks. Currently, the HiQ website, "Digital Workplace," "eStudent," and Blackboard systems are unavailable, causing many courses and exams to be rescheduled until early February. Moreover, network drive folders, including "U Drive," the printing network, and access via VPN using Cisco AnyConnect have been disabled until further notice. QUT students and staff were warned to remain vigilant for suspicious communication attempts and were told not to try to interact with any university systems marked offline on the status page. According to the latest updates from the university, there's no evidence that any data has been compromised due to the cybersecurity incident. However, while the university says there is no evidence of data being stolen, the Royal ransomware operation has already begun publishing data that they claim was stolen from QUT. In a new entry on their data leak site, the ransomware group leaked HR files, email and letter communications, ID cards and documents, and financial and administrative documents that they state represents 10% of the data stolen during the attack.
BleepingComputer reports: "Royal Ransomware Claims Attack on Queensland University of Technology"