If whoever has hacked Uni SA has demands, they can’t email them

Learned readers report Uni SA email was still down at 7pm last night following a weekend security breach (CMM yesterday), which they speculate could be caused by Ryuk file-encrypting ransomware.

The university isn’t commenting on anything, stating that they have referred whatever has happened to “the authorities.”  Presumably among them being the Australasian Higher Education Cybersecurity Service.

There are also suggestions that the hack was about acquiring staff data to on-sell, as occurred in a huge way at the University of California, (CMM April 7). But five days on, observers suggest there is nothing to indicate that staff-files are compromised. The attack appears to be straightforward cyber stand-over, with the perpetrators wanting to be paid to go away.

This would not be the first Ryuk ransom attempt in South Australia– Onkaparinga Council was hacked Christmas 2019.