Kashmir University’s data allegedly put on sale

The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has sought an urgent report from the Kashmir University (KU) authorities after a major data breach was reported in the University’s data system. CERT is a national nodal agency which responds to cyber security incidents in the country.

It was reported that besides the data of employees, the data of more than one million students including their registration numbers, email ids, passwords etc was put on sale on a ‘Dark Web’ hacking forum for $250.

The students and teachers have demanded a high-level independent probe by a MeitY team into the present incident so that the responsibility for the lapse is fixed and the system is made “foolproof and accountable.” A KU teacher said the matter of threat to University data was reported to the University authorities many times in the past but nothing was done to address it.

However the KU authorities said the University data was unmodified and further analysis is going on in the matter. A statement from the University stated, “The alleged breach is being analysed as per the preliminary analysis it has been found that the data is unmodified. Any breach on data read (which is already accessible in public domain) is being analysed in-depth and depending upon the analysis the University will take further course of action and take an appropriate legal recourse accordingly.”