Berkeley University Advises Staff & Students to Intensify Protection AgainstCyber Attacks

Berkeley University officials are advising students and staff members to subscribe to the Experian services as a precautionary measure against the cyber-attacks, which were conducted against the University of California last week.

The Experian is a free credit and identity theft service which serves as protection against hackers who have accessed the UC’s cybersecurity and shared on the internet files with personnel’s data such as names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, and bank account information, Erudera.com informs.

In a press release by the UC Berkeley chief information officer, Jenn Stringer said that campus members should take into consideration as many measures as possible against this incident.

The expert on internet security, professor Anthony D.Joseph, said that attacks like this request immediate action advising everyone to urgently utilize the Experian service for protection, which will manage credit monitoring and theft protection, including the dark web for any posting of an individual’s personal information.

“Employees with minor dependents should enroll their dependents as well. Employees with dependents over age 18 should have them enroll. Beneficiaries should also enroll. Enrolling takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes,” UC Berkeley’s statement reads.

As for the last three years, a wave of cyberattacks has hit many institutions, among those the University of California, which was subjected by a ransomware group, which required money in order to not share personal information of university members.

Apart from the University of California, this sort of malicious attack has subjected Stanford University and Yeshiva University, which have confirmed having their personal and financial data stolen and published online.

The University of Maryland, as well as the University of Colorado and the University of Miami, all reported having their data accessed at some point, mostly throughout Accellion, a system used to transfer files within the campus.

Last month, in response to the attacks, Accellion claimed it had closed “all known” fragile points, and no new ones had been detected.

These attacks are believed to be conducted by Russian-speaking groups based in Eastern Europe, where laws and policies unknowingly tolerate them.

The cyber-attacks seem to have sparked an interest in students since they are getting more involved in cybersecurity studies, as Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity (CIC) has revealed. Apart from the interest, the study has revealed that students face difficulties in completing cybersecurity studies, which has caused the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity to work to improve its science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs.