Cyber attack on the University of Winnipeg compromises staff and students' personal data

The University of Winnipeg in Canada said it experienced a data security incident that compromised the sensitive personal information of students and staff.

 

Based in Manitoba, Canada, the University offers undergraduate programs in art, business, economics, education, science and applied health as well as graduate programs to more than 18,000 students.

 

In a press release, the University said that on March 24, it identified suspicious activities in its internal network and immediately launched an investigation and engaged third party cyber security experts to understand the nature and scope of the incident.

 

The investigation revealed that the threat actors, who infiltrated the University’s internal network, accessed and stole the sensitive personal information of its students and staff.

 

“The University of Winnipeg first brought news of a cyber attack to our community last week. Regrettably, we are confirming that the individuals who attacked us stole information,” the University said. “Our investigation is continuing, but at this time we believe the theft most likely occurred in the week before March 24th.”

 

The University’s investigation found that all current and former employees since 2003 and students enrolled in the undergraduate and graduate programmes since September 2018 had their personal data accessed and stolen during the incident.

 

The compromised data includes the affected individuals’ names, social insurance numbers, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, compensation information, bank account information, programs of study, student numbers, fee and tuition amounts, gender information, and marital status information.

 

The institution has notified relevant law enforcement authorities and the Manitoba Ombudsman about the incident and is working with them to resolve the situation.

 

The data security incident also affected certain in-house applications used by the University. While the WebAdvisor app and the Learning Management System (Nexus) have been restored, the Ellucian GO app is still unavailable. The University, however, said it could take days, possibly months before all the systems are back online. In the meantime, it will share updates on its official website as and when more details are available.

 

The University also decided to reschedule exams that were supposed to take place between April 11-17 to April 25-May 2.

 

“Our priority is to minimise impact and timetabling conflict for students and faculty. The Scheduling office will continue to update the information as necessary, so please check the schedule periodically to see if there have been any further changes,” University of Winnipeg added.

 

The University said it will provide two years of complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services to all the affected individuals and will start notifying them via email soon.