HONG KONG – A staggering data breach has compromised the personal information of over 8,000 students at the Hong Kong College of Technology, a private vocational institution, Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog revealed Friday.
The college disclosed that its IT network and file server were hacked in February, enabling a ransomware group to seize a whopping 450 gigabytes of sensitive data, which was then leaked on the dark web earlier this week.
“This is not an ordinary attack, but a highly targeted and unusual cyber crime,” a college spokesperson said, condemning the incident and apologizing for the fallout. “The Hong Kong College of Technology deeply regrets any inconvenience and troubles caused.”
Springing into action, the college reported the breach to authorities, shuttered the affected systems, and collaborated with independent cybersecurity experts to investigate. As a remedial measure, it pledged to provide free credit monitoring and dark web monitoring services to affected students for six months.
Hong Kong’s privacy commissioner confirmed being notified of the incident on February 21st, stating that approximately 8,100 students were impacted, with names, ID numbers, emails, phone numbers and addresses compromised.
The Education Bureau has urged the college to conduct a comprehensive probe and bolster its network security to thwart future attacks. While police are investigating, no arrests have been made thus far.
The colossal data breach underscores the escalating cyber threats facing educational institutions, repositories of personal data. As digital dangers loom, enhanced safeguards are imperative to shield students’ privacy from nefarious actors operating in the shadowy corners of the internet.
