University of Nottingham data breach hits 455,000 students

The University of Nottingham has confirmed a major data breach after the ShinyHunters cybercriminal group leaked files stolen from its student record system, exposing the personal and financial information of hundreds of thousands of current students and alumni. The university, a major UK research institution, stated on Wednesday that a significant amount of data was accessed.

The breach was detected on Tuesday, June 9, after which the university took its Campus Solutions platform offline. Forensic investigators, including the platform's third-party maintainer, are leading the inquiry. The university has directly contacted affected individuals and reported the incident to Action Fraud and the UK's Information Commissioner's Office. The National Crime Agency also confirmed it is aware of the incident and is working with partners to assess the impact.

The ShinyHunters group claimed responsibility for the attack, listing the university on its dark web leak site and publishing over 40 gigabytes of allegedly stolen documents. According to their claims and an analysis by the breach notification service Have I Been Pwned, the compromised data includes approximately 455,000 unique email...