Recent Cybersecurity Incident: NYU Website Breach

-
Recent Cybersecurity Incident: NYU Website Breach

Recent Cybersecurity Incident: NYU Website Breach

Date: March 22, 2025

Incident Overview:

On March 22, 2025, the website of New York University (NYU) was compromised by a hacker identified as "@bestn-gy". The attacker replaced the university's homepage with what appeared to be student test scores and a racial epithet. The defaced page displayed a black background with green text, showcasing SAT and ACT scores, as well as GPAs categorized by race. This unauthorized content remained visible for approximately two hours before the website was restored at 12:54 p.m. [Source: New York Post]

Attacker's Motive:

The hacker claimed that the breach aimed to expose NYU's alleged continuation of racial affirmative action in admissions, despite its prohibition in 2023. Downloadable files containing the purported hacked data were also made available on the compromised site.

Previous Activities:

The same hacker, "@bestn-gy", previously claimed responsibility for breaching the University of Minnesota's systems, exposing Social Security numbers of over 7 million students.

University's Response:

John Beckman, a spokesperson for NYU, stated that the incident has been reported to authorities. The university is actively enhancing its security measures to prevent future breaches.

Lessons Learned:

  • Regular Security Audits: Institutions must conduct frequent security assessments to identify and address vulnerabilities.
  • Comprehensive Monitoring: Implementing robust monitoring systems can help detect and respond to unauthorized activities promptly.
  • Data Protection: Ensuring sensitive information is securely stored and transmitted is crucial to prevent unauthorized access.
  • Incident Response Planning: Developing and regularly updating incident response plans can minimize the impact of potential breaches.

Conclusion:

This incident underscores the critical importance of cybersecurity in educational institutions. As cyber threats continue to evolve, proactive measures and continuous vigilance are essential to safeguard sensitive information and maintain trust.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[pwncollege] Path Traversal 1 write-up

-
Image
Exploiting Path Traversal Vulnerabilities: A Step-by-Step Guide Exploiting Path Traversal Vulnerabilities: A Step-by-Step Guide Introduction Path traversal is a common web vulnerability that allows attackers to access files outside the intended directory. In this guide, we'll explore how to exploit and prevent this vulnerability using a real-world example. The Challenge The challenge involves a Flask-based web server that serves files from the /challenge/files directory. The server is vulnerable to path traversal due to improper handling of user input in the URL path. Server Code #!/opt/pwn.college/python import flask import os app = flask.Flask(__name__) @app.route("/files", methods=["GET"]) @app.route("/files/ ", methods=["GET"]) def challenge(path="index.html"): requested_path = app.root_path + "/files/" + path ...
Read more

OPERATION PHOENIX: The 2025 Exchange Server Cyber Holocaust | TS//SCI Briefing

-
OPERATION PHOENIX: The 2025 Exchange Server Cyber Holocaust | TS//SCI Briefing OPERATION PHOENIX: The 2025 Exchange Server Cyber Holocaust 🔴 CRISIS ALERT (TL:BLACK) - Active exploitation of CVE-2025-12345 has compromised: • 72,419 Exchange servers globally • 43 Fortune 500 enterprises • 5.1TB/hour data exfiltration Technical Autopsy: The Quantum Kill Chain POST /ecp/DDI/DDIService.svc/GetObject HTTP/1.1 Host: %TARGET% Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest { "__type":"ExchangeSerializedObject:#Microsoft.Exchange.Data.ApplicationLogic", "Object":"AAEAAAD/////AQAAAAAAAAAEAQAAAB9TeXN0ZW0uV2ViLlVJLldlYkNvbnRyb2xzLlZlcnNpb24C", "Properties":{ "@Object":"AAEAAAD/////AQAAAAAAAAAMAgAAABdNaWNyb3NvZnQuRXhjaGFuZ2UuVkI2AQAAAAROYW1lAQYAAABWYWx1ZQIAAAAL", ...
Read more

Europol Unveils Russian-Backed Cyber Sabotage: A Deep Dive into Hybrid Threats

-
Cybersecurity Chronicles Europol Unveils Russian-Backed Cyber Sabotage: A Deep Dive into Hybrid Threats In a recent disclosure, Europol has highlighted a concerning surge in politically motivated cyber-attacks and sabotage within the European Union (EU), orchestrated by Russian state actors in collaboration with organized criminal networks. This development underscores the evolving landscape of cyber threats, where traditional crime converges with state-sponsored activities to destabilize societies. The Nexus of State Actors and Organized Crime Europol's report reveals that "hybrid threat" actors are forming alliances with organized criminal gangs to execute a range of destabilizing activities. These include sabotage, arson, cyber-attacks, data theft, migrant smuggling, and other criminal endeavors. Such collaborations aim to undermine democratic processes, social cohesion...
Read more