The University of Manchester suffered a cyber attack and suspects a data breach

The University of Manchester suffered a cyberattack, attackers likely stole staff and students’ data from its systems.

The University of Manchester, one of the UK’s largest educational institutions, suffered a cyberattack, The popular university suspects that the threat actors have stolen data from its systems.

The University of Manchester has about 11,000 staff and more than 46,000 students.

The University discovered the security breach on June 6th and immediately launched an investigation into the incident- The institute also already notified local authorities, including the Information Commissioner’s Office, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the National Crime Agency and other regulatory bodies.

“Regrettably, I have to share with you the news that the University is the victim of a cyber incident. It has been confirmed that some of our systems have been accessed by an unauthorised party and data have likely been copied.” reads the statement published by the organization. “Our in-house experts and established expert external support are working around the clock to resolve this incident. We are working to understand what data have been accessed and will update you as more information becomes available.” 

The University has also published a FAQ page to update customers about the ongoing investigation. The institute pointed out that has no information to suggest customers’ personal bank details have been accessed.

“We know this will cause concern to members of our community and we are very sorry for this. Our priority is to resolve this issue and provide information to those affected as soon as we are able to, and we are focusing all available resources,” concludes the statement.

The statement doesn’t provide details about the attack, however, BleepingComputer reported that it has learned that the University was victim of a ransomware attack.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, cyberattack)