The University of Nottingham has experienced a cyberattack in which an external third party accessed a significant volume of data held within its student record system.
A statement from the university said: “The University of Nottingham has been the victim of a cyber-incident and a significant amount of data in our student record system has been accessed by an external third party.
“We know this information is likely to cause concern for students and staff in our community and we apologise for any anxiety that this may cause.
“Two groups have been impacted by the incident – current students and alumni.
“We are working to understand the data that has been accessed and have contacted those students and alumni affected directly. We are working closely with Action Fraud, the Information Commissioner’s Office and other regulatory bodies.
“We will remain in contact with those directly impacted and will continue to provide updates as the situation develops.”
Spencer Starkey, Executive VP EMEA, at SonicWall, said: “Organisations need to step up their defences and treat cyber-resilience as a core operational priority.
“Without a decisive shift toward AI-native security strategies across both the public and private sectors, we risk a scenario where public services and critical infrastructure simply cannot keep up with the velocity of what’s coming. And what’s coming isn’t slowing down.
“Adversaries are focussing on harvesting data; names, payment details, location patterns, and the thing is the data probably won’t get used straight away, it will get stockpiled. And when Quantum Computing makes encrypted datasets readable, everything collected now becomes a liability. Harvest now, decrypt later. So you might not see the real threat for another decade.”
Adam Boynton, Senior Enterprise Strategy Manager at Jamf. said: “The attack will only add to the stress of students, parents, and guardians during an already challenging exam season. “Universities hold vast amounts of personal and financial data, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals. Beyond the immediate disruption, data breaches can cause lasting reputational damage, eroding trust among students, parents, and staff and potentially affecting enrolment.”
