"University of Minnesota Confirms Data Breach, Says Ransomware Not Involved"

The University of Minnesota has recently confirmed that a threat actor has exfiltrated data from its systems but says no malware infection was identified.  The confirmation comes one month after a threat actor boasted about accessing the university’s database containing information about students, staff, and faculty.  The adversary claimed to have accessed 7 million unique Social Security numbers, as the database contained records the university has been digitizing since 1989.  The university claimed that it initially learned about the hacker’s claims on July 21 and immediately launched an investigation to verify the validity of the attacker’s claims.  The university stated that the preliminary assessment is that the data at issue is from 2021 and earlier.  The university also said that scans it has performed revealed no ongoing activity related to the incident, and there were no system disruptions.  The university noted that its investigation is continuing, but its security professionals have not detected any system malware (including ransomware), encrypted files, or fraudulent emails related to the incident.  There have been no known disruptions to current university operations as a result of this data security incident.  The educational institution did not say what type of personal information was accessed in the data breach and did not confirm the number of impacted individuals.  However, it did say that it would inform all affected parties if it determines that sensitive information might have been compromised.

SecurityWeek reports: "University of Minnesota Confirms Data Breach, Says Ransomware Not Involved"