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Thousands of students in Germany queue for email access - Comment from Webroot
December 2019 by Webroot
Some 38,000 students in Germany have been asked to queue in person for a new email password, after their university was hit by a cyber-attack. Following this, Matt Aldridge, Principal Security Architect at Webroot, has provided a comment, discussing why universities are ripe for cyber-attacks, and they can avoid them in future.
“Universities host a wealth of intellectual property that makes them a common target for cyberattacks. Although details on the exact nature of the attack are still emerging, it looks like the potential data compromise was widespread. Significant resources will be needed to process students and in addition to password resets, IT teams must properly audit all machines connected to their networks and the data they hold.
“Mitigating future attacks will be challenging due to the nature of educational facilities. Geographical dispersion, the movement of data and the number of personnel accessing the network make IT security difficult to maintain. However, a strategy which layers security awareness training underpinned by cybersecurity technology – such as email filtering, anti-virus protection, and sensible password policies – will help keep data safe.” Say Matt Aldridge, Principal Security Architect at Webroot.
