Data Leak Suspected at University in Osaka due to Cyberattack

Osaka, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)--Osaka Metropolitan University has said that data on at least 130,000 students and teachers may have leaked from the institution due to a system failure caused by a cyberattack.

“It is regrettable that we could not prevent the incident,” Hiroyuki Sakuragi, president of the university in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, said at a press conference held Monday to announce the possible data breach. “We will deal with the situation so that the university can fulfill its mission.”

About 500 servers for the university’s information system stopped operating after a suspected ransomware attack Friday last week, according to the school.

The data that may have leaked include the names, addresses and email addresses of people related to the university as well as information linked to Osaka Prefecture University and Osaka City University, which merged in April 2022 to create the current institution.

The campus network for students, and the portal site for the teaching staff remained unusable as of Monday. Lectures have been canceled.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]