Cyber ​​attack on Yıldız Technical University. Is the data of 140 thousand students in danger?

A cyber attack emerged after the system problems experienced at Yıldız Technical University (YTU) since the beginning of the month. The personal data of 140 thousand students and thousands of staff may have been compromised during the digital crisis within the university.

Since the beginning of October, it has not been possible to access Yıldız Technical University's official website, Student Information System (OBS), Online Yıldız and various application systems.

140 THOUSAND STUDENTS AND THOUSANDS OF STAFF MAY BE AFFECTED

It turned out that this technical problem was caused by a cyber attack. In the decision of the Personal Data Protection Board (KVKK) dated October 7, while announcing the data breach at the university, it was stated that approximately 140 thousand students and 4 thousand 500 personnel may have been affected by this situation.

UNIVERSITY INFRASTRUCTURE WAS ATTACKED BY RANMSWARE

According to the announcement of KVKK; YTU's virtualization infrastructure and the servers running on this infrastructure were affected by the ransomware attack. The breach, which started on October 1, was detected on the same day, but it has not yet been determined which personal data was affected.

THE UNIVERSITY SAID "TECHNICAL STUDY"

The university has not yet made a comprehensive statement regarding the technical problem. However, in the statement made by the university on October 3, it was announced that this situation was due to "technical work".

The following statements were included in KVKK's announcement:

"In the data breach notification submitted to the Board by Yıldız Technical University, which is the data controller, it is summarized as follows; the breach started on 01.10.2026 and was detected on the same day, the virtualization infrastructure of the data controller and the servers running on it were affected by the ransomware attack, the relevant group of persons affected by the breach are students, staff and visitors, according to existing records, the number of relevant persons who may be affected by the breach is approximately 140,000 students and 4,500 staff, the number of visitors has not yet been reached." "The personal data categories affected by the breach could not be determined."