Reports from both the University of Cambridge and the University of Manchester have revealed that they’ve fallen victim to a highly sophisticated cyber attack, with the assailants aiming to cripple their IT infrastructure.
While the extent of the impact on Manchester University remains uncertain, in the case of Cambridge University, a hacking collective known as Anonymous Sudan has claimed responsibility for the attack. They have utilized a distributed denial of service (DDoS) approach, flooding the network server with fabricated web traffic in an attempt to disrupt legitimate operations.
Insiders from the educational institutions have disclosed that critical IT services such as Moodle and CamSIS were among those affected by the onslaught, clearly indicating the attackers’ objective of causing significant disruption to the core infrastructure.
Dr. Stuart Rankin, the head of user services at Cambridge University, affirmed the severe disruption caused to computing services by the sudden influx of bogus web traffic overwhelming the servers.
The motive behind the Sudanese hacking group’s targeting of British institutions appears to be linked to the UK’s support for Israel and its involvement in conflicts in Gaza and Yemen, according to sources. The timing of the attack coincided with a report from security awareness firm KnowBe4, which highlighted the vulnerability of London-based universities to state-sponsored cyber attacks. The report underscored concerns that hackers, having obtained network login credentials, could exploit them to launch various cyber assaults.
It’s worth noting that this same criminal group has previously targeted Western businesses aligned with supporting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
