Hackers managed to compromise and steal research date and personal information of scientists from the University of Toyama’s Hydrogen Isotope Research Center.
The Hydrogen Isotope Research Center Has Been a High-Profile Intrusion
A hacker attack has compromised the cyber defenses of the Hydrogen Isotope Research Center of the University of Japan. According to the official reports important research data and personal information regarding the scientists working there might have been stolen by the criminals.
The center has been working with the tritium isotope of hydrogen. The compromised data include information such as the email addresses of some of the 1500 people. Most of the stored research data has already been published or is ready to be published and there are no sensitive papers that have been compromised.
According to the university reports, two members of the staff have received emails that contained a virus in November 2015. Through a local infection the computer network has been infected with a virus that has maintained a remote party connection for the duration of about six months. The published information does not report on the hacker operatives. The security alerts that have lead to the discovery of the virus’s existence wre made from an outside organization.
The Center actively collaborates with a lot of third parties – countries and organizations to conduct relevant research. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has made the university examine the impact in details so that more information about the incident can be uncovered.
The university has began to notify affected people that had their personal details stolen by the hackers this month.
It is a likely scenario that the perpetrators of the crime did not seek to cause actual physical damage. It is very likely that the hackers were simply trying to steal sensitive intellectual property which may be much more valuable.
