Medusa ransomware claimed the attack on a Cyprus university

The Medusa ransomware group admits it is the culprit of the recent cyberattack against the Open University of Cyprus. The campaign disrupted the academic institution’s operations.

This Cyrus-based university is an online university in Nicosia that offers remote learning. It provides 30 higher-level academic programs to more than 4,000 students. OUC also participates in several scientific research projects.

However, the university published an announcement last week about a malicious attack on March 27. The attack disrupted several central services and critical systems of the university.

 

The Medusa ransomware group listed OUC on its data leak website.

 

Earlier this week, the Medusa ransomware group posted the mentioned institution on its data leak site. Additionally, the group gave the university about two weeks to comply with ransomware demands, reaching about $100,000.

Unfortunately, the group has also set the same price for selling and deleting the stolen data. The hackers have also offered OUC that they would delay the data leak for 24 hours for $10,000.

The attackers have also published data samples about the attacks to prove the legitimacy of their claims. The file samples contained troves of data such as the students’ personally identifiable information (PII) and the financial details of research contractors.

Researchers explained that the Medusa ransomware group does not exempt education organisations from their target list. This detail showed that this malicious group is unlike other ransomware actors that do not target healthcare and academic institutions.

Last month, the group also targeted the Minneapolis Public Schools district. The attack happened in early March when the threat actors demanded $1 million in exchange for the stolen data.

The small island country of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean has already suffered from a cluster of high-damage cybercriminal campaigns since the start of this year. The most significant cyber incident that the small island country suffered was the attack on its online portal of the national registry.

Organisations, especially academic institutions, should study the Medusa ransomware’s capabilities and behaviour to adopt a potent countermeasure against its attacks.