The University of Copenhagen in Denmark has confirmed that hackers accessed one of its test environments with the personal information of 525,000 people.
The education agency detected the breach last Tuesday and disclosed it on Friday. In yesterday’s update, the university added another 20,000 staff and students whose PINs were exposed.
“The University of Copenhagen has confirmed a cyber attack in which hackers gained access to one of the university’s test environments,” The university said.
Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is Denmark’s oldest university and one of its leading research institutions. It has about 36,800 students and 10,700 employees, with six faculties and more than 200 research centers.
The University of Copenhagen is still investigating to determine the extent of the incident, but warns that the following information may be revealed:
- Full name
- National Identification Number (CPR)
- Phone number
- Email address
Exposed information increases the risk of phishing and social engineering attacks.
Regarding the disclosure of the PIN code, the University of Copenhagen has restricted physical access to certain key locations on its campus out of an abundance of caution and is slowly reopening it as it distributes new access codes.
The university said it contained the attack and blocked the attacker’s access. Currently, there is no indication that hackers gained access to systems that support daily operations or disrupted university activities.
The university reported the incident to the Danish Data Protection Authority, but also said it was within the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and that it was taking appropriate steps with the relevant regulators.
Students and staff whose information may be disclosed at this event should exercise caution in unsolicited communications and independently verify requests.
The university promises to provide more updates on the extent of the impact as soon as an internal investigation allows.
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