Potential Cyberattack: University of Manchester Reports Data Breach by Hackers

The University of Manchester has issued a warning to its staff and students that it has fallen victim to a cyberattack, resulting in the unauthorized access of its network and the likely theft of data. The University, which is a well-known public research institution in the UK, with over 10,000 staff members and 45,000 students, discovered the breach on Tuesday, June 6th, and took immediate action by launching an investigation. In a statement published on its official website, the University of Manchester confirmed that some of its systems had been accessed by an unauthorized party and data had likely been copied. Currently, the University is working tirelessly to remediate the situation and to determine which systems have been accessed, with the assistance of both in-house experts and external support. The University has also informed all relevant authorities, including the Information Commissioner’s Office, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and the National Crime Agency, about the security and data breach. While the University has set up a separate FAQ page to provide guidance to its students and staff members, high vigilance against potential phishing attacks is advised. The University has not yet released any information regarding who is responsible for the attack or whether any sensitive research or personal data has been stolen, as the investigation is still ongoing. The University of Manchester has, however, stated that its security incident is unrelated to the recent MOVEit Transfer data theft attacks or the associated data breach at Zellis. While sources have revealed that the attack was ransomware, the University has declined to comment on this topic when asked by IT Services.