In a recent report by the York Press, University of York has launched an investigation after personal information of students and staff was obtained by the bad guys.

According to the report, the customer relationship management system Blackbaud was hit by a ransomware attack in May of this year. Unfortunately Blackbaud only informed the university this week, and the university disclosed the breach yesterday.

Blackbaud has issued a statement saying: "In May of 2020, we discovered and stopped a ransomware attack. In a ransomware attack, cybercriminals attempt to disrupt the business by locking companies out of their own data and servers. After discovering the attack, our Cyber Security team together with independent forensics experts and law enforcement successfully prevented the cybercriminal from blocking our system access and fully encrypting files; and ultimately expelled them from our system.

Prior to our locking the cybercriminal out, the cybercriminal removed a copy of a subset of data from our self-hosted environment. The cybercriminal did not access credit card information, bank account information, or social security numbers.

Because protecting our customers’ data is our top priority, we paid the cybercriminal’s demand with confirmation that the copy they removed had been destroyed. Based on the nature of the incident, our research, and third party (including law enforcement) investigation, we have no reason to believe that any data went beyond the cybercriminal, was or will be misused; or will be disseminated or otherwise made available publicly."

It is important to ensure your users are going through continual security awareness training that keeps phishing emails from becoming a viable initial attack vector for ransomware or any other cyberattack.