Education and Academia


  • CISA, DHS S&T, INL, LSU Help Energy Industry Partners Strengthen Incident Response and OT Cybersecurity

    April 23, 2025

    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) hosted Louisiana State University (LSU) and several energy industry and critical infrastructure partners to train against simulated, high-impact cyberattacks on operational technology (OT) and traditional information technology (IT) at CISA’s Control Environment ...

  • CrazyHunter Campaign Targets Taiwanese Critical Sectors

    April 16, 2025

    CrazyHunter has quickly emerged as a serious ransomware threat. The group made their introduction in the past month with the opening of their data leak site where they posted ten victims – all located from Taiwan. trend Micro researchers have followed some of their operations through internal monitoring since the start of January and have witnessed ...

  • Chinese police put 3 U.S. operatives on wanted list over cyberattacks

    April 15, 2025

    Police authorities in Harbin, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, said on Tuesday that they are pursuing three operatives affiliated with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) over suspected cyberattacks against China. The Harbin public security bureau said that the three operatives — Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling, and Stephen W. Johnson — had been ...

  • Suspected Kimsuky (APT-Q-2) attacks South Korean companies

    April 11, 2025

    Kimsuky, alias Mystery Baby, Baby Coin, Smoke Screen, Black Banshe, etc., is tracked internally by Qi’anxin as APT-Q-2. The APT group was publicly disclosed in 2013, with attack activity dating as far back as 2012. Kimsuky’s main target for attacks has been South Korea, involving defense, education, energy, government, healthcare, and think tanks, with a focus ...

  • UK: Parents arrested after making ‘disparaging’ comments about school in WhatsApp chat

    March 29, 2025

    A mother and father have said they were arrested in front of their young daughter and held in a cell for 11 hours after making “disparaging” comments about her school. Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine Hertfordshire Constabulary officers turned up at their home after the school objected to criticisms. The couple were questioned on suspicion of ...

  • Cyberattacks climbing across Caribbean

    March 28, 2025

    Ransomware gangs FOG and Akira continue to be the main culprits behind a number of recent cyberattacks plaguing businesses locally and across the Caribbean, a cyber-security expert has indicated. According to Rory Ebanks, director of cybersecurity at Symptai Consulting Limited, the two ransomware gangs, which both emerged in the last three years, primarily exploit vulnerabilities in ...

  • Operation ForumTroll: APT attack with Google Chrome zero-day exploit chain

    March 25, 2025

    In mid-March 2025, Kaspersky technologies detected a wave of infections by previously unknown and highly sophisticated malware. In all cases, infection occurred immediately after the victim clicked on a link in a phishing email, and the attackers’ website was opened using the Google Chrome web browser. No further action was required to become infected. All malicious ...

  • Pennsylvania: Half a million teachers hit in major data breach

    March 19, 2025

    Even if you practice perfect cyber hygiene, you can still wake up to find yourself amid a major security crisis resulting from a data breach, and that’s exactly what happened to half a million teachers. As reported by The Record, over 500,000 teachers and other employees who work in education across Pennsylvania’s public schools had their ...

  • Hacker accessed PowerSchool’s network months before massive December breach

    March 10, 2025

    A hacker compromised the U.S. edtech giant PowerSchool months before its ‘massive’ data breach in December, according to a now-published forensic report into the incident conducted by U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. In a letter sent to affected customers last week, seen by TechCrunch, PowerSchool confirmed that an investigation into the incident has revealed that its network ...

  • Operation sea elephant: The dying walrus wandering the Indian Ocean

    March 3, 2025

    Operation Sea Elephant aims to spy on Chinese scientific research achievements in the field of ocean to ensure the dominance of a certain country in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. In mid-2024 QiAnXin Threat Intelligence Center researchers discovered the South Asian direction attack collection numbered UTG-Q-011, which, despite the fact that the collection’s subsequent plug-ins differed ...

  • Australia: Cyber attack at University of Notre Dame still disrupting services, resolution time unclear

    February 19, 2025

    The University of Notre Dame says it does not know when its services will be fully restored following a cyber attack which has disrupted services for nearly a month. About three weeks out from the start of its first semester, which began on Monday, the Perth university was hit by the ransomware attack which knocked out ...

  • Funksec Ransomware Teams Up with Another Ransomware Group to Double Down on Targets

    February 3, 2025

    FunkSec is a relatively new but highly active ransomware group that, as of this writing, has targeted several dozen victims across industries like government, banking, communications, and education. In a recent blog post, the group announced a partnership with another ransomware outfit, FSociety, aiming to carry out attacks more efficiently. This week, SonicWall Capture Labs research ...

  • Enhancing Botnet Detection with AI using LLMs and Similarity Search

    January 8, 2025

    As botnets continue to evolve, so do the techniques required to detect them. While Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption is widely adopted for secure communications, botnets leverage TLS to obscure command-and-control (C2) traffic. These malicious actors often have identifiable characteristics embedded within their TLS certificates, opening a potential pathway for advanced detection techniques. In first-of-its-kind research, ...

  • First Israeli-built quantum computer now in operation

    December 18, 2024

    Israel’s first domestically built quantum computer, using advanced superconducting technology, is now operational. The 20-qubit quantum computer was developed under the leadership of the Israel Innovation Authority, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Hebrew University, and Yissum, the university’s technology transfer company. This collaboration has established a superconductor-based quantum computer infrastructure alongside a robust development and integration environment. ...

  • Texas medical school says hackers stole sensitive health data of 1.4 million individuals

    December 17, 2024

    The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) confirmed hackers accessed the personal and sensitive health data of over 1.4 million individuals during a September cyberattack. The cyberattack, which also affected TTUHSC’s El Paso campus, saw attackers steal information including Social Security numbers, financial account information, government-issued ID details, and health information — including medical records ...

  • Midnight Blizzard conducts large-scale spear-phishing campaign using RDP files

    October 29, 2024

    Since October 22, 2024, Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed Russian threat actor Midnight Blizzard sending a series of highly targeted spear-phishing emails to individuals in government, academia, defense, non-governmental organizations, and other sectors. This activity is ongoing, and Microsoft will continue to investigate and provide updates as available. Based on our investigation of previous Midnight Blizzard ...

  • Chinese researchers break RSA encryption with a quantum computer

    October 14, 2024

    The research team, led by Wang Chao from Shanghai University, found that D-Wave’s quantum computers can optimize problem-solving in a way that makes it possible to attack encryption methods such as RSA. In a potentially alarming development for global cybersecurity, Chinese researchers have unveiled a method using D-Wave’s quantum annealing systems to crack classic encryption, potentially ...

  • Education under siege: How cybercriminals target our schools​​

    October 10, 2024

    Education is essentially an “industry of industries,” with K-12 and higher education enterprises handling data that could include health records, financial data, and other regulated information. At the same time, their facilities can host payment processing systems, networks that are used as internet service providers (ISPs), and other diverse infrastructure. The cyberthreats that Microsoft observes across ...

  • Meta Glasses can be used to dox strangers via facial recognition

    October 3, 2024

    Two Harvard students have created a privacy nightmare, according to 404 Media. Real-time facial recognition smart glasses, which pull up names, contacts, addresses, and more about a complete stranger just by looking at them. The students – AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio – say they won’t be releasing the product nor the software behind it. The ...

  • Education, Health Sectors Facing Challenges as Nigeria Records 586,130 Cyber Threats in 6 Months

    September 14, 2024

    Between January and June 2024, a staggering 586,130 cyber threats were launched against Nigeria, especially the financial institutions and telecoms companies, with other sectors also facing specific challenges. According to the report, various industries face unique cybersecurity challenges. The education sector grappled with maintaining security amidst digital transformation. The healthcare industry struggled to balance handling sensitive ...