Copenhagen: Cyberattack exposes 525,000 people and disrupts university

A test environment, real data. The University of Copenhagen has confirmed a cyberattack against a personal database of around 525,000 people. The establishment detected it on October 20 and made it public on the 23rd. The hackers had access to names, identity numbers, telephone numbers and email addresses. The investigation continues: access to the data has been established, but nothing yet proves their publication or fraudulent exploitation.

The affected database contains full names, CPR numbers (the Danish national identifiers), as well as work and home telephone numbers and private email addresses. The university blocked the attackers' access and reported the incident to Datatilsynet, the Danish data protection authority.

On October 25, she said that the hackers had also obtained the PIN codes of the access cards of around 20,000 people. The university had closed certain sensitive premises on Friday evening, before reopening them after the allocation of new codes. She had postponed this announcement to secure the access concerned.

However, the IT situation remains disrupted. On October 26, teams first mistook suspicious activity for a new attack. The university subsequently corrected this analysis, while maintaining preventive closures related to the initial incident.

In its update of October 27 at 9:30 p.m., it indicates that several systems remain inaccessible from the outside. Their reopening depends on an individual safety assessment. She emphasizes that these systems closed as a precaution have not been compromised. The university also notified those affected.

Combining an identity, phone, and email address can make a fake message more convincing. A scammer can thus present himself as an administrative service or an advisor, then use this information to gain the trust of his interlocutor.