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RansomHub claims to have stolen 366 gigabytes of data from the Melbourne-based university’s campus in Malaysia, including passport scans and student data.
The Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus has been listed as a victim on the RansomHub ransomware gang’s dark web leak site.
The Sarawak Campus was listed over the weekend on 30 August, with the gang – or, more accurately, the gang’s affiliate, as the group is a known ransomware-as-a-service operation – claiming to have stolen 366 gigabytes of data.
No ransom has been listed; however, the deadline before the data is published is just over four days at the time of writing.
While the affiliate in question has added nothing more than a description of the Sarawak Campus taken from the university’s own site, the hackers have shared several documents they claim to have stolen during the attack.
These include invoices, a letter of completion to a student, an application for advanced standing, bank account details, a blank student information form, and a scan of the passport of an ex-student from Malaysia. Numerous personal details are included in the data already published.
A Swinburne Australia spokesperson has confirmed that an incident has taken place.
"Swinburne Sarawak is responding to a cyber security incident, there is no impact to Swinburne’s Australian campuses," the spokesperson told Cyber Daily.
"We are providing support to Swinburne Sarawak as they continue their investigations into the incident."
Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus was established in 2000 in the state of Sarawak’s capital city, Kuching. According to Swinburne Sarawak’s website, “The campus is a partnership between Swinburne Australia and the Sarawak government.”
“The campus is part of a long-term strategy by Swinburne Australia, established in 1908, to globalise its operations and provide its students with international living, working and learning opportunities,” it said.
The campus currently has a population of 4,000 students from 60 countries.
This attack marks RansomHub’s sixth attack on an Australian, or Australian-linked, organisation in August and its seventh local victim since the gang was first observed in February of this year.
Earlier victims include Regent Caravans, Hudson Civil Engineering, and McDowall Affleck, another engineering firm.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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