InfoSec / Cyber

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Cyber attack on a University

During February there have been a number of attacks reported on Universities in the UK.  There were reports of hackers attacking the universities of Cambridge, Manchester and Wolverhampton.  Systems were affected at all sites.  The disruption is the latest reported attack by Anonymous Sudan.  It is thought the attacks are related to the UK's support of Israel in the Gaza conflict.

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Kent Councils Data Breach

The ICO has confirmed a data breach from Kent councils.  The breach was reported by three Kent councils who share the same IT support provider.  Canterbury, Dover and Thanet councils continue to be hampered by the disruptions of onlines services following a cyber incident.

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Phishing attacks targeting schools - alert from City of London Police

The City of London Police is warning schools across the UK to be vigilant against phishing attacks targeting school networks. Multiple schools have reported receiving suspicious emails containing malicious attachments that have infected their networks with malware.

Once infected, the school's email systems are used to send malicious attachments to other schools.

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Help and Advice against Phi

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Update on Advisory for Rhysida Ransomware

We have previously reported how the Rhysida Ransomware has focused on attacking the education sector.  Recently the CISA, FBI and MS-ISAC have released a new joint Cyber Security Advisory to disseminate known Rhysida ransomware indicators of compromise, detection methods, tactics, techniques and procedures identified through recent investigations.

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The Crime in a Cyber Attack and a Data Breach

As a data protection officer we are seeing a rise in the number of cyber attacks on organisations.  We often find that the fact an actual crime has been committed is sometimes overlooked in the panic and need to recover data and get operations back up and running.  According to the National Crime Agency (NCA) cyber crime continues to rise in scale and complexity, affecting essential services, businesses and private individuals.  Cyber crime costs the UK billions of pounds, causes

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Learning from Data Breaches

The British Computer Society (BCS) has recently published the biggest data leaks of 2023.  The leaks cover worldwide cyber attacks, but the lessons learned apply to organisations of all types all around the world.  The data breaches include The Guardian Newspaper, LastPass password manager, Royal Mail, MOVEit, Microsoft, The UK Electoral Commission.

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International Counter Ransomware Initiative 2023 Joint Statement

Several countries have pledged never to pay cyber criminal ransoms and to collectively work toward disrupting their financial systems.  The members affirmed their joint commitment to building their collective resilience to ransomware.  They will share data on ransomware perpetrators and techniques and establish a blacklist of information about digital wallets used to facilitate rasomware payments.

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Resistant Cloud Backups

The NCSC has recently published an article about creating resistant cloud backups as a way to be more resistant to the effects of destructive ransomware.

We all know that backups are an essential part of an organisation's cyber strategy and making regular backups is the most effective way to recover from a destructive ransomware attack, where an attacker's aim is to destroy or erase a victim's data. 

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Top Ten Cyber Security Misconfigurations

The NSA and CISA Red and Blue teams recently shared the top ten cyber security misconfigurations.  The schools we have worked with that have suffered a cyber attack often find that there are configurations, upgrades or user access controls that were missed.  This advisory highlights all of those and more - these are not in-depth configurations, but often ones that are set up incorrectly and then not checked or updated as time goes by. Although the advisory is aimed at larger organisati

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  1. ICO Reprimand: company suffered a ransomware attack
  2. The UK Online Safety Bill becomes an Act (Law)
  3. The importance of software updates (PaperCut vulnerability and Rhysida ransomware)
  4. Ransomware, extortion and the cyber crime ecosystem
  5. Schools under Cyber Attack: September 2023
  6. Cyber Resource: The Cyber Resilience Centre Group
  7. Email and Security: ICO recent guidance
  8. What to do in the event of a Cyber Attack
  9. Cyber Crime: AI Generated Phishing Attacks
  10. Cyber Attack: Exam Boards
  11. VICE SOCIETY - Ransomware attacks on schools
  12. Be Cyber Aware: USB Sticks
  13. Cyber Insurance in the Public Sector
  14. Types of Cyber Attacks: DDos Attack (Microsoft DDoS Attack in June)
  15. Cyber Attack: Manchester University
  16. Cyber Attack: Leytonstone School
  17. Be Cyber Aware: Firewalls
  18. Be Cyber Aware: Cyber attacks and transparency. A no blame culture
  19. Cyber Attack: Dorchester School
  20. Types of Cyber Attacks: Password Attacks
  21. Be Cyber Aware: Why regular software updates are important
  22. Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2023
  23. Cyber Attack: Wiltshire School
  24. Keeping your IT systems safe and secure
  25. Why we recommend using PIN codes on printers
  26. Types of Cyber Attacks: DDoS Attacks
  27. Types of Cyber Attacks: Phishing
  28. Types of Cyber Attacks: The Insider Threat
  29. Why your data is profitable to cyber criminals
  30. Types of malware and how they are linked to data protection
  31. A guide to multi-factor authentication
  32. How a school fought back after a cyberattack
  33. Types of Cyber Attacks - Credential Stuffing
  34. January Cyber update - How Can Schools Help Prevent Cyber Attacks?
  35. End of Windows 8.1 Support
  36. The Education sector now at highest risk of cyber attacks
  37. Cyber Attacks
  38. Emails – good practice and minimising the risk of a data breach

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