The BlackCat cyber-extortion group (ALPHV) has once again reminded of itself by announcing an attack on Florida International University (FMU). According to hackers, they managed to steal 1.2 TB of personal documents of students, teachers and employees, including contracts, social insurance numbers, email addresses, etc.
“Today, a cyber extortion group has published sensitive data stolen from the FMU. We have conducted an investigation and have not yet found any evidence that this sensitive information has been compromised. Currently, there is no additional information,” representatives of the FMU told The Record Media.
FMU has already become the eighth university in the United States to suffer from a ransomware attack this year, after Olone College, Savannah State University, Detroit Mercy University, Centralia College, Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas, National University College and North Carolina A&T State University.
According to Allan Liska, a specialist of the Recorded Future information technology company, in March 2022, his team recorded 37 open reports of ransomware attacks on educational institutions. For comparison, there were only 127 such messages for the whole of 2021.
In the first three months of 2022, more cyber attacks were recorded than in any previous year, Liska added. BlackCat accounts for attacks on at least three educational institutions in the United States.