New research shows that even though educational institutions are highly popular targets for cybercriminals and state-backed hackers alike, universities have very poor security in place. In a recent simulation, penetration testers with Jisc managed to get their hands on “high-value” data belonging to all of the over 50 UK universities under scrutiny. What’s more, the hackers never needed more than two hours in order to successfully complete an attack.
According to the report, spear phishing was among the most successful attack method used by the pentesters. The data obtained by the security professionals included personal data, finance systems and research networks.
Read more: Hackers beat university cyber-defences in two hours
